Mitch

Yea..I see in the reunions Martha give Liz the same look Lily would give Lucinda...so maybe it WAS Martha. I also see from the reunions what a pain in the ass Liz must have been...it was all about her, she talks over people (more so then the rest..) He always came across as so stiff and uptight..and not the stiff and uptight guy who can be crazy in the sheets..he just always came off as a drag..so the women throwing themselves never seemed to work that well. I do wish they had hired a really sexy Latino guy..but...I think Marland would have felt it was too much and give him the vapors. I hated that he ignore Betsy and Kim for Kim to focus on Frannie. The point of Bob and Kim was that they brought this family together of kids of different ages and (like Betsy) not bio kids to make a family. Of course, I was watching the Meg Ryan years where all Kim did was support her (what a waste of a character) but the relationship was strong.

Actually, the Eli Simms one was the ripoff of Ghost Story. (town patriarchs are attacked by a mysterious foe...a girl comes to town looking like someone they harmed in the past..)..but hey..if you have to "borrow" from someone, it should be interesting. What soaps after 1993 would ever borrow anything from a book..it was other shows or movies.

Agreed..and it did tie all the families together in a way which worked..if they had continued on with it being those 5 families being the main families going forward. Hate that they killed Bill, he needed to be around in the background and coming in on various events occassions...(imagine him at Bert's funeral.)

And we really needed Ed for the Santos stuff...it was weird that they would get rid of him at that time...(and I think that Gentry would have weird chemistry with SS..not that Ed would get with her but she would be kind of turned on by him standing up to her...)I liked Gentry (agreed so tired of sour puss Simon) and the show did have the Bauers involved in the attack on Abby and her trial, etc. so they could have done a lot with him. I did like his chemistry with both MG and Lillian and I opposed to others, wouldnt have minded them getting together..(Ed was much more to blame for Mo then Lillian was.) I could even seen him with Alex...TPTB were obviously no the least interested in rebuilding the Bauers.

I never understood why Nola and Quint weren't more involved with the Cottage of Doom. Sacrilege but I would have killed off Quint in that storyline not Butch Hillary..there was nowhere to go with him. Carrie Nye threatening Nola and Nola not taking any of that crap would have been great...but they had to shoehorn annoying Fletch in..

Agreed..it was at the point in the show that all the families had equal time and they all "worked" together...Reardon's blue collar...Bauer's upper middle class professionals, Lewis' "neuvo riche" as Alex would love to say, Spauldings and Chamerlins...rich aristocratic and dysfunctional. The forumla should never had changed. Anway..the storyline itself while as you said, very premise was absurd it was a good tight mystery (and it didnt hurt to have Mr. Tony Reardon in the center of it all..)

Pam Long originally create 5th Street to be the down rent version of 7th Street, which was blue collar but respectable..When Harley first came on she was termed a "river rat" as she lived in the wrong side of the river. I do wish later writers had dug that up..like she she married Phillip and someone would snicker.."Wasnt she a river rat???" Reva during her attempted suicide (and I agree with Zimmer, totally out of character) jumped from the rich side and was saved by Cain and dragged to the poor side...which is why she bought "Reva Bend." which was a dump until she let H.B. pay for renevations. So, RevaBend was not out in the country.. in SF but the wrong side of SF. I do like Long's attention to geography and the class system....the Bauers, the Spauldings, the Chamberlines and the Lewises lived "on the hill" and then here was 7th Street and 5th Street, etc. I would think by the time Holly bought it, that area was gentrifying.

Well, I am sure Zenk was just embarrassed by the OTT that Sheffer made Babs..jumping out of the window??? Hubbard..love her but you can see she was a pain in the ass...she was on ALL the time and she complains?? I can see why writers and producers ignore actors..they can be a bit narcissistic.

Good points!!! And yes, I think soaps were naturally going to end...I just wish they had done it with dignity. Everyone on FB etc, who are desperate for a GL reboot...really? You know it would suck...(sorry, could care less about the AMC reboot but if it works, good for them!) Yes, she was miscast..they really just needed to either not recast Emily or give the character a breather. I like her..but as someone else...(her helmet hair when she first came on was distracting as hell.) And yes..I had the biggest crush on Jeff Hamlin..why did they get rid of him..I mean, we all knew he was going to get screwed over by her but why just end it? I can actually see Emily gravitation towards Deas Tom or Marx's Tom..a nice big protective brother figure, but Holmes Tom had no warmth, no generosity of spririt if you will that is needed in the role, and came off as someone really hard to even like, much less love. I think back then, at least on message boards, no one thought anyone was listening..so it was like talking amongst friends with no repercussions on the actors..(I learned my lesson when I made Frankie D's wife cry..) But agreed, that was the time the "fans" got ahead of themselves and TPTB took them too seriously...Point A is Brad Cole's mysteries "popularity" with a core group of women who constantly harranged the studio about him.

It was Simon, and yes.. I think it was moving the shows towards a more plot driven focus and away from character driven that changed that. I don't mind that the plot continues to move forward, as whatever we are dealing with in our lives continues during the holidays...its just when the plot completely dominates that it is a problem. A good example is a GL episode where Beth comes home to Lillian on Christmas Eve and the fallout of Dylan being Reva and Billy's kid is dealt with. The simmering hostilities at the Spauldings is going on at Alex's party, and at WSPR you have the rest of the cast renacting the Christmas story and small issues and problems being healed (Ed and Fletcher make up...) All in all a good example of plot and sentimental Christmas celebration..(as only Pam Long could do.) As I have said before..Marland is a colder writer so his family celebrations always seem stiff and formal compared to GL..but he actually seems to stop the plot more then GL did.

All the Reardons except for Mo were gone when she was on, so she interacted with the Bauers the most and was considered one. Bea was on for her intro, but she never worked with Lisa Brown, Melissa, or the Matt actor. I just watched the reunion and it was great! Whatever faults Alan may have with not knowing some things, I do think he really did love the shows. It was great to see everyone...(though I did feel like a bit weird finding Little Bill attractive) and that they obviously really like each other. I agree that Evan seemed a bit standoffish but she has had a hell of a year so the fact that she even did this was great..PAS looks damn sexy now and I never thought one way or the other about him on the show, and Nancy looks great too...though, the weird musical interlude from SS was..weird...

Oh my...Kristi sounds like Granny Clampet now. I couldn't tell what she looks like. Funny for someone who did under fives she, while not a great actress brought a lot of charm and life to that role. Krista looks great, and Kimmer looks happy and fun. Please, Mikey, no more impressions!

Liz Hubbard would have to be on it.(though I don't care to hear about her acting "processes" just break bad Liz..).Beth Ehlers (just let her rip on Zimmer for writing about her in that book..) Maureen Garrett seems to not have a problem dropping a bomb or two in her laid back way..maybe Lisa Brown..Fiona actually stood up for Zaz and got backlash for it..who else?

Oh, yea, have Susie Pratt join in along with the others..."The Divas of Soaps Grab TPTB's Balls and Rip Them Off for Good" would be streamed time and time again!

Can you imagine Alan trying to reign Fulton in..even just a few years ago, and even more now if she is starting to "not give even more damns," what people think. due to age. The only thing to add to the surreal would be Collen Zenk and Kim Zimmer joining at Happy Hour...

I know when Beth Ehlers was portraying Irna for the GL anniversary show...(and a great job she did..she was better as Irna then as Harley at that point) she mentioned that she went and talked to Hastings and Fulton, and that he was great on her mind set and Fulton gave her tips on how she spoke and her body language...so it would be great to hear from both of them in dept about Irna.

God I remember this..I was in college and I still thought it sucked..Alan and India vs. Sour Kyle to find the "Andoran Gold," or whatever, everyone at that damn summer camp...(don't forget the lake monster) chemistry testing Billy Lewis with Roxie of all people, big hulking Dinah...the only saving grace was Reva spent a good part of the summer "snorkeling" at that camp and Zimmer was at her peak..she looked great. Weird, as Marland was getting ATWT together and it was at its peak then...(before it became an overlay sincere morose show.)

I still agree with Marland's first idea..he wanted to bring the kid back instead of Scott. I would have brought Dr. Shea back with him...(i.e. Shea faked his death and then to punish Lisa faked the kid's death..how I don't know but stranger things have happened.) I would have had him be the one to be the one to go after Betsy..sent by Shea to get back at Ellen and her family. Lots of interesting stories in that if a good writer could figure out the how of it all.

He would have been a good fit as one of Carmen's henchmen (conspiring and then knocking her off) and NOT Roger's son. I also never noticed the southern lilt in his voice and I can never forget his..flirty scene with Josh of all people...weird but interesting casting.Things could have come together, Blake joining forces with her brother, Ross caught in the middle but having antogonistic relationship with him and I love Togoni's tough street version of Dinah..."Well, hello Manners, did ya forget yar talkin to the mayor?"

Every show needs someone like that..and Lisa was the perfect fit for it...knowing everyone by being the town's glam busybody and her mothering of all the young people and the lost souls. Gautman and MADD never got that she was important in that role (or that a role like that was important) and its to Diva Fulton's credit that I didn't hear her complain about it at that stage of the game.

I don't know that Long tried all that hard..after they were married and Eli Simms was over...they were sidelined. I have no idea why they didn't get the Cabin Mystery...(I would have had Nola and Quint move into the cabin) or at least be more involved. A mystery and ghosts and Nola wasn't all over it???

The problem was the magic was gone...Brown and Tylo didn't have much chemistry when he came back. I think Quint is a problematic character...almost more a plot point then a real character and he really didn't flourish outside Marland's gothic storyline. Though, they never wrote well for him after Marland left so he could have returned more adventerous and rough hewn on his second run. If it didn't work then he and Nola split up as he wants to travel the world on digs and she is tired of it. "Quinton, I really cannot stand to be kidnapped one more time by one of your rivals..I am getting too old for that!!!"

I respectfully never get it when someone says that a character would NEVER cheat on someone...when it happens all the time to get people in real life...(hmmm Chris Hughes never cheating on Nancy..Tom Horton never cheating on Alice..okay, I will go with that.) I think the problem with Nola and Quint is that they made him so much a pr*ck about it, even bringing her to Henry's funeral, and Nola being a sullen mope. That was out of character. However, yes, I would have gone with Quint being presumed dead..(I would have it that it happened off screen during the Van/Bridget custody battle and why no one could go to her...and it would allow the character to search for him and go through a greiving process off camera) Henry goes and brings Nola back to Springfield for a visit while the kids are at school and then she promptly sees a void at both the Boardinghouse and the Reardons and at the Bauers..where she makes herself a lovable pain. I was not wedded to Quola and think there was no where to go but to kill him off the first time around, and I thought Brown had great chemistry with Josh Evans and I would have brought him in as someone else..Chief of Police who always has Nola getting into his business...and then bring Quint back.

The show was so good even with character's I could care less about..and even with yet another sweaty Snyder making over Lily (and thank God MB got those eyebrows under control) with so many characters and the moving around it is hard to get bored or annoyed by characters you don't like. If you watch the same day episode of GL there are about 8 characters and the pace seems so slow, even with Zimmer doing her best to keep the energy up. I gotta say I am with Bob (plus I hated Dan) and really dislike the soap trope that being single means you are "lonely" as Tom says. (uh no Tom, she was grieving its different you ass.)

I really think this caused my dislike for PS as they wrote Ed like a total pr*ck...(but it was JFP's GL..the "star" of the show became selfish Buzz...) and it wasn't his fault, he just played what they wrote for him. He said in one of the reunions that he kept looking for Ed's redemption but it never came. Maybe a recast would have worked that could seperate the character from PS's Ed.? Nola did confront him later but her anger was more directed towards Lillian and they wrote her as bitter from her own husband's affair. They missed a great opportunity to have Nola come back and try to take over for Mo...in the kitchen (not Ed's bed) and trying to mother Chelle and hand out advice and screwing it up as only Nola could do. When she finds out what Ed did, the man she always thought of as a big brother perfect husband kind of guy her anger would be justified and having Ed use that to actually tell the audience how guilty he feels..would have been great.