Mitch

2 hours ago, MarlandFan said:

I remember reading an interview with Fulton in 1992 after the Scott reveal. She mentioned that Marland had asked her about Chuckie's death and if it had happened offscreen. She told him "no", that the child's body and Lisa's grieving over the body had been portrayed onscreen.  So clearly Marland had considered bringing Chuckie back, but realized it would be a betrayal to the show's history. 

I agree about Scott being dull. When I first learned that Joe Breen had been cast as Scott, I was excited because of his great work on GL. But Scott (as written) was a wimpy sad sack who (obviously) had mother issues. Even back in 1992 it seemed very problematic that he should get sexually involved with his boss (Lucinda) and after that relationship ended, he moved right into a relationship with the doomed Neal. Then the actor began to physically change from his health issues -- and then he was replaced. And then Marland died.  Scott as a character (and as a long-lost brother to a core character) never caused the fireworks that he should have. And before any major correction could be made, Marland and the character were gone.  I liked the direction the new Scott took (as an unpredictable troublemaker portrayed by Doug Wert) but by then I had basically stopped watching the show.

Yes, he asked her about Chuckie and Fulton said..."Nancy Hughes buried him, and whoever Nancy Hughes buries stays dead!" (if only other writers would listen to their actors like that.) However, I think their was wiggle room, and would have loved for Lisa's bad girl days would come back to haunt her. I always wanted the Dr. Shea history to be revisited as it must have been something..Lisa, Nancy Hughes pet, tearing apart her best friends marriage...

Yea, I cannot believe that a long lost son of Lisa' s could be so damn boring. I knew when we had this 30 something guy in a sweater living at home and saying "Grandmother" that it was already on the wrong path. I did like Wert's version (and his pecs) but it came at a bad time for the show and was not his fault. Like Reva, Lisa should have been confronted with a male version of herself on steroids...(well, not as loud as Jonathon I hope) and there we just got a bit of a younger version of Holmes Tom.

12 hours ago, Bill Bauer said:

 

The Lisa/Ellen feud went way back to when Ellen was trying to get custody of Dan. Lisa was very against what Ellen was doing and let her know it. It didn't help that Penny and Ellen were best friends and Penny couldn't stand Lisa either in those days. Then, the animosity got a lot deeper when Lisa had an affair with (and a baby by) Ellen's stepfather, Michael Shea. The affair turned Claire into a suicidal lush and pretty much destroyed her. Ellen never forgave Lisa for what she did to her mother. 

I just wish that someone would have done something more intense with their relationship..Marland was the only one to touch it (in a video from the Willows era David and Ellen are chucking that Lisa wanted to open a wine bar in the basement (very forward thinking of Lisa and actually a foreshadowing of what was to come) and that "Whatever Lisa puts her mind to she can do..." like they were the best of friends. If someone had helped turn my mom into a drunken lush I would have it out for them forever..and with Ellen and Lisa under Marland it was just like they annoyed each other.

I really wish they had brought back "Chuckie" with his dad still alive (hey if James could do it) and the old past would come to the fore. Scott Eldridge was too boring but I am sure Marland would have made Chuckie as politely dull.  At least, when Ellen and Lisa are having the spat about letting Emily stay at Lisa's Ellen could have spit out..."I wont let the same thing happen to Emily that happened to my mother!"

7 hours ago, TVFAN1144 said:

She looks good in this hairstyle 

She looks great...and if you ever saw pictures of her husband when they were younger..he was handsome..and a doctor! Ole Ellen had something going on to keep that hottie!

12 hours ago, Franko said:

And didn't David date Linda Dano's character, Cynthia, for a minute?

Yes...they had no chemistry...and but she had a daughter Karen, who caused trouble for dull as dirt Annie/Jeff and blackmailed James into marrying her (thus dumping Dee at the altar) and then got involved with John and fought Lucy over him. She was fun. Its too bad that they didn't find a Cynthia who HF had chemistry with to prolong the David/Ellen split, but to tell you the truth...HF was never going to light up the screen with chemistry as good of an actor HF was. 

11 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

It's odd with how dowdy they dressed Ellen in the 70s..when by the mid 80s..she had a more youthful look again

Oh..the bun!!! But it was also the pained expression Ellen and dour David always had on their faces. When they "jazzed" (as my mom would say) Ellen up and let her smile she was pretty....though my Grandmother never bought it..."Look at dull old Ellen, trying to be cute with that long hair!"  The dour days must have been hell for Bruder to play.

3 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

There was a budding romance with Ralph Mitchell (who had returned), just at the end of Marland's run, but the next set of writers dropped it.  

No offense to the actor, but if the "hot" storyline was putting her with Ralph Mitchell after all these years and sitting in a corner, if I was Bruder I would have thrown the script up in the air!  I just wish someone had the balls to give Lisa back her claws..have her write an expose..."Murders Among Us" in the Argos, with Ellen's article..."Suburban Murderess"  Ellen then wakes up and goes and smacks Lisa down in the Hughes kitchen when they both invariably stop by for coffee in the morning...with Kim and Nancy pulling them apart. Maybe they could have brought Scott back and paired him with Dee..she had a taste for bad apples...

20 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Good point as this summary from 1965 hints at that

 Don reestablishes his on-again/off-again romance with Ellen, but Ellen is close to accepting David's wedding proposal.

David/Ellen was the biggest wedding the show had ever done so the writing must have leaned towards Ellen romancing Don b/c she felt she didn't deserve David after all she'd been through.

She and Don had always been close. This is something that could have been used in later years as Ellen comforts Don over Joyce for example and David gets jealous.

Instead David and Ellen became tentpoles. Ellen was even dropped at one point in 75.

 

When David and Ellen broke off would have been the perfect time to bring back Don. Poor Mary could have died (she was always going into a coma anyway...) and Don comes back with Teddy (they could have brought back Wagner at that time and explained she was off taking car of things after Mary kicked) and starts a romance with Ellen..causing Bob and Nancy and Chris to not be happy. Instead, they had Ellen move into a swinging middle aged ladies apt with a bunch of nobodies and date a doctor who was a nobody and disappeared.

3 hours ago, Bill Bauer said:

Yes, she was pregnant and gave the baby up on screen. She didn't want to give the baby (Dan) up but was pressured to by Judge Lowell because she wasn't married to the father (Tim Cole) at the time. He was married to someone else. So she gave the baby up for adoption. Tim subsequently got a divorce and married Ellen but died soon after from leukemia. It was only after Tim's death that Ellen decided to try and get her baby back. David and Betty had adopted Ellen's baby. That's how she got into David's orbit. She tried to get Dan back from David and Betty. Betty died from pneumonia and then Ellen married David. So, she married her baby'd adoptive father. Franny Brennan, the Stewarts housekeeper, threatened to tell Dan that Ellen was his real mom (she was hiding that fact from Dan). So Ellen killed Franny by bashing her over the head with a paperweight. 

Wow...slutting around with a married guy..did she even love David or was it just to get the kid..and then killing someone! She sounds worse then Lisa at her height of bitchiness!  Meaning I think I would have liked her. She could have made such an interesting character and she was just a dull frau.  I can't believe during their little annoyance with each other that Ellen didn't bring up that Lisa was a slut and Lisa could say "Well honey, I never MURDERED anyone!" and the Ellen slap her...making Kim and Bob rattle their tea cups! I know, a bit too intense for Marland and polite Oakdale. They should have at least given Ellen a wistfull air or a temper.

3 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

 

 

  

Very nice memorials, especially from RN.  Wow,..its just hard to believe Nola is gone!

12 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Was just thinking about Ellen Lowell Stewart and the number of people close to her that died.

1. As a young woman, she lost her father Jim suddenly.

2. Then she marries Tim, the father of her child but he dies leaving her a widow.

3. Then Betty Stewart, adoptive mother of her son dies

4. Her best friend Penny's husband Jeff dies in a car crash.

5. David's housekeeper Franny dies and she is accused of murder.

6. Her stepfather Doug dies suddenly.

7. Penny's 2nd husband Neil dies

8, 9, 10.Daughter in law Liz, and stepson Paul both die and a few years later her son Dan passes away

11. She is widowed for the 2nd time when David dies.

probably a few more could be included. Ellen probably had a selection of black outfits at the ready.

I always thought they wrote poor Ellen as a dud and Bruder could have done much better with the character..especially with her wild past.  Was she preggers and gave the baby up on screen..if she was a widow why give the kid away? Also, how did she get into David's orbit...and how did Frannie die and was she murdered by someone else? I always thought they should bring back a relative of Frannie, maybe a son to date Dee or Annie (instead of the dreaded Porny Brad) or grandson to date Betsy...or have someone become the Stewarts maid and its her granddaughter gaslighting Ellen. So much history there but poor Ellen was always a dud.

11 hours ago, P.J. said:

Per usual, half the town lied to keep poor Lily's feelings from being hurt.

Ha..sounds like Marland's ATWT! Grow up Lily...he screwed someone else and can be a father to the kid while married to you. This was weird fake Lily too, the tall cold one?

11 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Bored?

This story got ATWT to #2 in the ratings back in 1991. 

Yea...I just was done with the whole "Protect Lily" thing..especially since at this time she was played by someone who looked like they could go bear hunting with a stick and seemed unpleasant all the time...(not that Byrne's Lily wasnt a whiny little snot but she was Lily...) and the whole Snyder family was tiresome by that point. A new Margo and Tom who had none of the chemistry or energy of the old M and T's, all the corporate people running around (did anyone in Oakdale just run a hardware store) talking about how they need to focus on relationships instead of business, John with poor dour Iva (after he had screwed her mother....)when John should have been with Lucinda stirring up trouble. I remember being so excited that Will from GL was going to be on ATWT but his character was just as boring as everyone else was. The only bright spot truly was Lucinda reveling in her greed and business and making trouble for the Snyders.  Funny..I was totally into GL at the time and look at its ratings and I can't believe AMC and OLTL were that low in the ratings.

36 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

 Karl was Scott's lawyer cousin. 25 mins in.

 

Ha....love it..Lucinda is right about everything..love the sniping and side stepping between Lucinda and Lisa on the phone!. By the way, was Lisa just crowned the Snowflake Queen with that dress.

I forgot how ridiculous it was that little Oakdale had all of these huge corporations colliding...World Wide, Krueger Industries, and whatever the hell Frannies husbands biz was called.

Good thing RB stuck to writing, his was not the most energetic actor.. (but actually looked like a real person.) I love that they used him just get to move the plot along and he does not waste anytime does he..."Oh hi Lisa, nice to meet you, by the by, why was everyone so close mouthed about my cousin's death???" and "Oh yes Lucinda, my cousin died while he brother was still married to Lisa, and no one would talk about it and Lisa just acted weirded out when I mentioend it and  you really do need to sniff around that..."

Can anyone remind me about the Baby Aaron storyline..I was bored with ATWT at the time so only tuned in and out and it seemed everyday they were talking about this...how did Andy's name get on the birth certificate and why didnt they just say, "Hey Lily..Holden knocked up Julie and this is his kid and Iva adopted him..okay? One thing off of Lisa's plate.."

10 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Guiding Light 

Ed Bauer played by Peter Simon in 2002

Vanessa returning in 2002 for the anniversary episodes as well. 

Honestly 2002 had plenty of returns I was shocked at, including KT as Mindy. 

A deSORASED Susan 

Nola and Bridget Reardon for the last episode. 

All of those and to top it off, acknowledging the Reardon's ties to Company and the Boardinghouse,  (and Nola's snark on the Coopers) and actually allowing Alan and Ed to have a real conversation which didn't feel forced.

16 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

Funny how you compare SFT to ATWT's production values, because if I'm correct, SFT's EP Mary Ellis Bunim leaves that show become producer of ATWT in the early 80s. 

She did, and the producer before her...(he of the bad lighting, cheap sets and garish make up) was Fred Bartholemew...former child star, turned ad agency exec who was given ATWT and was pretty much a hack...I remember when Search was on before ATWT as a kid, even if I wasnt interested...it always looked better then ATWT did at that time.

On 11/18/2021 at 11:10 PM, allmc2008 said:

Marland's typewriter is shown here.

 

This is a similar model on ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114474714322

The Lily paternity reveal in the barn looks hilarious without dialogue...Fichtner's reaction looks like it came from a silent movie (of course, the Snyders and their barnyard incest antics were my least favorite part of the show...)

Hope Bauer.. a big mystery why they never brought her back with Alan on screen and a need for a Bauer matriarch. I really can't believe they never went there with recasting with whatsherface that Deas was paired with on SB and have a triangle of Buzz/Hope/Alan..not that I wanted to see that at all but since they seemed to have a hard on as Buzz actually being a capable foil to Alan. I know they aged AM so much that it would have been difficult to recast but Deas isn't that much older the the guy playing Frank , Ann Sward on ATWT was I think only 5 years older then Margaret Colin who played her daughter.

15 hours ago, danfling said:

Ms. Gabet would have been good in the role.

 

Hmm. as Margo...interesting. I never bought Dolan, who I liked a Maureen, as Margo.  I wished they had brought Gabet on to GL when they cast Malloy...what fun it would have been to see Reva and Raven going at it...and would have saved us from boring Maeve.

36 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

Judi Evans is a fine performer. I don’t blame her for the Beth characterization or how poor Beth was blind and helpless or how she was overly-infatuated with Lujack, There’s a clip from one of the intros above that starts with an explosion and a blinded Beth looking helpless and calling out for Lujack. That’s pretty much Beth in a nutshell.

That intro shows the sudden change in GL at that time to keep "pace" with GH...(though GL was doing just fine in the ratings...) it goes from a mix of vets and new characters having romance and family moments to mostly young and newbies and explosions, kicking in doors, slapping, punching pushing and other "action" moments.

15 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

Yeah - Mary Kay Adams’ India was a great soap troublemaker, but a nuanced one. Adams had a lot of screen presence/charisma, too. She was a lot more interesting than that dull, perpetual victim Beth!

I thought Judi Evans, Beth, Mary Sue that she was..was not an annoying as say, Lily Snyder...I think Evans worked against the writing sometimes to bring Beth down to earth.

The clips above show what a mess the show had become at that time, (though interesting to see Parker's first few months) Faux Ed, unexplainably bitchy Claire, Simon and Jesse (ugh) Alex being stupid and thinking white bred Simon is her brother, crazy Cain, boring Maeve and Kyle. Though I really liked Reva at this time, brought back down to earth and not hyper ventilating over a great love, and actually loved the Fletcher/Reva friendship...I loved when she accuses him of being jealous and he just blows it off as ridiculous and you can see Reva covering up her disappintment.  And I HATE Fletcher but he was good doing this kind of stuff.

21 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

This is an unpopular opinion but I liked John Bolger as Phillip. But I was never much of a fan of Grant Aleksander’s.

Note to Alexandra and Beth: if you don’t want to talk to a reporter, just keep walking and don’t engage. It’s silly if you tell them you don’t want to answer questions, and then just stand there and let them ask you questions.

Bolger was great..he was just too different from GA to be an immediate recast. He seemed more like Bernau's bio son then Phillip...(would he have been the real Spaulding heir, who actually had lived and came back to take Phillip on.) Or if he played a corporate raider in cahoots with India...he was one of the few men that MKA had chemistry with.

Speaking of MKA...I LOVE her as India...she just brings the right blend of mischief, along with that hurt deep down and the few times she shows she has a heart. Long really knew how to write for her but I don't think that anyone else did...she never fit into the role of trouble making "vixen" so it was difficult.

16 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I think Pine was likely available and had shown he could play a bad guy. His Tad Channing was gross and hopelessly ruthless, with no redeeming qualities. I'm guessing that with Pine, the writing had decisively leaned fully into D#nald T*ump by then. Amoral, disgusting real estate developer who was on the verge of wrecking the business that his father built, while being incapable of keeping his rape-y hands to himself.

It was just weird..he went from younger and sexier to..someone who looked like a weird old man in an "adult" movie theater! I know they wanted the sleaze but it just made Iva look dumber then she already did.  Maybe they were first thinking he was going to be long term and then when there was not going to be a quad of Iva/Steve/Betsy/Tad they went all out sleaze ball villain for the kill. Too bad, the show needed a sexy villain and I am sorry, Tonia did not cut it. Iva seemed brighter and tougher during this time, after that she just became the morose looser in love that when she wasn't saying "Im worried about Lily" she was saying, as everyone else "Honesty is the most important part of a relationship" I forgot how intersting Iva was at first....she kind of had an antogonistic relatiionship with Mama Farmer and was world weary, which no one in Oakdale was allowed to be.

Anybody know the first actors name..it looks like he disappeared.

19 hours ago, Vee said:

he binge continues! Consecutive viewing is getting spotty but now it's June '86 and suddenly we're up to at least three Tad Channings as the latest is a considerably older Larry Pine with what appears to be severe laryngitis, scheming somehow with the first adult Emily (Colleen McDermott). How did she get involved with him?

I never understood why they got rid of the first Tad..who if I remember...was sexy and you can see Iva and others getting involved with him. Larrry Pine's Tad was just..gross.  Anyway, I think this storyline really is the quality climax to the whole Lucinda/Lilly/Iva storyline and the end result should have been her finding out the truth...was it..I can't remember. It just seemed to drag on after this and get more and more Snyder incesty weird..with Rod Landry intro...(can it just be a horny Iva got it on with a hot farm boy and leave it at that without this weird incest sex is bad and rape thing???)

14 hours ago, Bill Bauer said:

I'll have to respectfully disagree there. Charita could play cold better than anybody and she played Bert as very cold for most of the character's run. Way colder than Nancy ever was. 

Yea, before my time...ever since I watched she was the good grandma, friend to all who could, when needed, give someone a kick in the ass.  I still can't believe that Charita was in her early 60s when she died...I guess I am also used to Marland's Nancy...who, like all his characters, thought it was bad form and impolite to loose their temper...where more blue collar Bert had not problem showing a bit of fire.

13 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Nancy had reasons to be stone cold to Joyce..and it seems like the Dobson's got Joyce..and to a lesser extent Nancy.

I think Nancy and Joyce were pushed out after the Dobson's left the first time.

Another character they wrote well was Carol...the nice girl.  In other 1980 episodes, she's written well.

Such an odd time...for the first half of their first run, the Dobson's were including Nancy and Chris, and then that winter, they practically disappeared when they should have been involved..John's rape trial, with Lyla's testimony on the stand that Margo was John's kid...the return of Natalie...Joyce up to no good (which led to Wagner quitting, a week before the 25th anniversary.)  I remember that summer an influx of..nobodies...and a middle aged asian couple (no problem with them being asian, it just was weird that they were going for youth and these...middle aged nobodies appeared...) but when Bunim came in and fired the deadweight it would have been easy to bring Wagner back and recenter the show but she didnt.  Agreed, Carol was nice but not a push over...(and forgotten to make way for Steve/Betsy) I still would have liked to know where they were going with some stuff...what was going to happen with Joyce's fake brain tumor...what did they envision the dreaded John/Dee/Brad/Annie quad was going, what was Natalie going to do...(the new writers had her trading barbs with Lisa and trying to babysit her bio kid...) where was Babs/James/Margo going...(what was his Egyptian artifacts thing all about...)

I would really like to know backstage why the Dobson's left the first time and oddly enough, they were brought back within a year which seems to never happen to head writers.

3 hours ago, Broderick said:

ric Hollister (Bo Reckell) seemed to be impersonating Peter Brady's famous "pork chops and applesauce" line on the Brady Bunch.

I wondered what he was reminding me in that!! What was that line reading all about????

2 hours ago, SoapDope said:

The actor (Peter Brouwer) playing odd ball Brad before joining ATWT was in the original Friday The 13th with Kevin Bacon (before he was on GL). F13 was released in 1980, but was filmed in 1979. His character in that film was an odd ball too. 

 

 

 

Ha..everytime I see that on TV I have to say..in disgust..."Ugh, Brad Hollister!" I think the writers before the Dobsons return wrote him out (Tom King?) but it was getting really gross as Lisa, who Brad conned before...was throwing herself at him! Uggggh!

18 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I tend to be confused about the Brad/Dee timeline, if they ever even had a relationship. I know he came on before the Peter Simon character (Ian) died, and was initially conning Lisa - I can't remember, from the old clips, if John was already chasing after Dee when she was with Ian, or if all this started when Ian died. It's a bit odd now, looking back, to go directly into a love quad after Dee was supposed to be traumatized from Ian dying on top of her. And I don't understand why they needed the involvement with Annie - wasn't she meant to be in love with Jeff at this time? I was surprised he wasn't mentioned or shown anywhere in these episodes. Poor Annie seems so matronly. 

Then after she and John marry, he goes on trial for rape as she thinks she's sleeping with Brad, or whatever that was...I just don't remember if she ever actually ends up with Brad. Was he gone by the time the Dobsons returned? Or did the Dobsons write him out when they came back?

Sometimes I wonder why ATWT let Peter Reckell go, but I can kind of see it here - he's very pretty, but also stumbly and a bit generic. He had the same problem at Knots. I wonder if Bo was just the perfect fit for him. 

I agree that Suzanne Davidson is very likeable, and easy to watch. I can see why Meg Ryan said she initially got a bad response from fans in taking over (I know there was a Betsy between them).

My favorite part of that Nancy scene is when Joyce says, "Am I so terrible?" and Nancy....just.....pauses, before not even answering the question. Bone-chilling. That's what people watch soaps for, not "Stewart Mining." (I got a good laugh out of that little name card)

People were complaining that the Dobson's were just doing Ed/Holly/Roger/Rita here but it was not as sexy and fun.  No ONE not even John has energy in this quad. Apparently after Ian died in the "act" on top of poor Dee, she became as Marland would write on GL..."frigid" and afraid of sexual relations, so John Svengalied her and that part makes sense. The Brad part does not. he just appears out of nowhere, and stalks Dee while Annie moons over him, as he rips Nancy and Chris out of their land? How do Brad and Dee even have any kind of relationship and again, why marry poor dowdy Annie? Now if they had made Brad an ex of Dee's that she was in love with from before...and maybe he and Annie screw (after Dee rejects him) and she is preggers, so they marry, but both of regrets on the decision.

And DO NOT f*ck with Nancy Hughes here...bitch would take a few seconds from mixing the cake batter to freeze you to death with that cold stare! I love it and Wagner must have had fun playing it as she always was colder then Charita...

On 11/7/2021 at 7:05 AM, Soapsuds said:

 

Wow..O'leary was eating the scenery there..I never saw it before but Clark could have played O'leary's dad. I wish NuPhillip was playing someone else. he is good, just not Phillip and he was one of the only guys Adams had chemistry with.  Loved Alex here...the later writers should have watched these kinds of scenes.  Good ole Alicia Rohmer..soon to be killed herself.

Zimmer is all kinds of annoying here (yes, yes, we know your there...)..poor Maeve stuck in a collar here on her way to being meek Van..though I loved her having some steel in her voice. I liked Trish...she was a good actress. You can see they were thinking that Kyle can replace Alan Spaulding here...not quite.

12 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks @victoria foxton. This seems to be the end of one episode and then another, with a few minutes of GL in between. I think that GL episode is on Youtube so that may help us with the date. 

That first episode has a transition shot between that googly-eyed, mustached baddie in the James story (who ends up kidnapping Barbara eventually - one of her 500 kidnappings in these years) and Brad, also googly-eyed and mustached. One was meant to be wicked, the other was meant to be our hero. Funnily enough I think the baddie is much more charismatic and attractive even though he is obviously not meant to be. 

What a live wire Joyce is. You can just feel the tortured energy from her and even as you are sympathetic toward her, you aren't surprised that Nancy, who spent her life trying not to be that type of woman, absolutely detests her. That ATWT fired Barbara Rodell and let Helen Wagner quit in this period, while parading a series of ingenues so wan they make Rosanna look like Lucinda Walsh, is truly sad. 

Did they intend to dress Dee like Alice in Wonderland? The dress, the headband, everything. Jacquie Schulz has an appeal to her, it's just what they do with her that is so dull.

Nice to see more of early Lyla, and of course Cricket, with her special line readings...

Veleka Gray reminds me of Lois Nettleton.

@Mitch you might enjoy this one too.

Ha..pervy Brad. I was watching at this time and I still don't remember how, if he was so in love with Dee...(did they have kiss or have sex..) he chooses to marry Annie instead, and how no one but John knows what is really happening.  The Dobson's did get John, but that was about it on ATWT so it became the John Dixon hour. That scene between Brad and Dee goes on and on..and it would work if the two actors had chemistry...fiiled with regret and longing, but it just drags on with these two. The Stewarts owning a silver mine is dumb.

Nancy is stone cold in this and so much different then the good grandma Marland made her. I like that she is steel here and her line reading "Lisa doesn't tell me what to do" ..ah Joyce, you in trouble girl! I liked that she could be the loving mom, grandma and friend, but would not take anyone's crap. Did the Dobson's have trouble writing that after coming off Bert Bauer..or was it just a dumb..lets make everything younger and force Wagner to quit?  I think it would have been fun to write a matriarch like her..part Alice Horton part Angela Channing. What coma is poor boring Mary in now..the one that came from her and Joyce arguing or when she got hit by a car?I actually think poor befulded Don is kind of sexy...but then I thought "fat" fat Ed Bauer...of which we get a glimpse here. was sexy too.

I liked this Lyla much better then the meek mouse Ann Sward played...she actually seemed tough and a former ho. Cricket isn't so bad here..she just could not carry a storyline and they were obviously going for a young Erica thing or to try to match Nola on GL..but they eventually figured it out and she would have two lines an episode. This Betsy is cuter then I remember and seems real, like someone you went to school with. How old was Reckle's Brad supposed to be..he seems so much older then Betsy and his line readings are weird.  What a dull character for the "hot hunk."

James was not as cartoony back then and he actually had parents which was totally forgotten later. I remember this as Babs gets prepared to be chased through the museum. I love that no one can figure out that Lars is up to no good just by looking at him!

What a dork I am that seeing Bob and Lisa again makes me feel like I am three years old having to "take my nap" so my Mom could see what "That damn Lisa is up to today."  Eileen looks and sounds great as of course Don does too (plus I love that study or office he is always in..) Don always just seems like somebodies Dad and Eileen a crazy and beloved Aunt...(of which I was luck enough to have a Lisa like aunt.)  I loved Eileen's simple ideal for Lisa's last scene...a guy handing her a glass of champagne and they look at each other...I would have added her saying..."Wait until they find out about us!"  A real shame that Lisa was not kept in the mix until the very end..they could have used her in a million ways.