Mitch

Because Alan is still working and people who were the decision makers are still working , even if they are not with P & G and egos are egos. PR is, like HR, there to protect the company. I am sure Alan still feels loyal to those people (is MADD alive still.)? What would be interesting is if Alan let them talk and then gave his perspective...(such and such was going on at the network, the focus groups said this, the budget was limited,..etc.) However the best thing would be if someone else besides an ex-corporate P & G..did these.. if they could shut up a minute, Zimmer and Zenk would be hilarious moderators...(especially around happy hour..)

Duncan and Shannon kind of remind me (at their most fun) of Quint and Nola. They were getting the kind of stories on ATWT that Quola should have gotten, but for some reason Long could not or would not write for them ..they should have goten the cabin mystery or been more involved in it.

God that song is so hokey with the split screen, but it is a hokey that makes me feel good..only ATWT at this time would do this. But really, what kind of song is that to play at a high end place..this is the first time I heard this song as opposed to Lyla's caterwalling of that dumb song of hers that hit the charts and capulted her to fame!!! Which characters are you referring to..the group of the really stupid McKechnie Castle thing...(you know the one which got moved, brick by brick and all the furniture and tapestries and also, carried the ghost with it? Marland didn't do camp???) or the Mona Lisa gang? I never really noticed before but the Duncan actor is really out of place in Marland's ATWT, he is sexy, masculine, not bad, and despite Marland doing his best to wussy him, not a wuss. He was fun when he was a rogue guy screwing Babs and causing problems for Shannon, and yes, typical Marland, he does get boring and blander when he and Shannon get together..they always should have been the fun couple going on adventures and solving mysteries, not the typical Marland bores spouting off about intimacy and "honesty" in a relationship! I wonder what the actor would have done on GL which was more adventurous and campy. And thanks..I love watching these old commercials and now I can't get that damn "Soft and Dry" song out of my head!

Did the show having any black writers or people of color on the show at that time? Not that they should be put into a box and only write for the black characters, but at least someone could have run the ideas by them. I remember when Nancy Hughes was trying to teach a girl to read by using rap music. It made good use of history as she was a teacher and I know what they were trying to do..but even to my white college boy mentality it was kind of..squirmy...(why was it black character the one to not be able to read...there was no push and pull between Nancy and the character, the teen treated Nancy like everyone else on the show did at the time...) It would have been interesting to see Nancy deal with her own white privilege before there was even a term for it.

And what was weird is this was not 1962..what was so controversial about being Jewish, half the execs at the network probably were. I can see it would be annoying if it was all about that but the guy is Jewish just like the Reardons were Catholic and the Coopers were most likely Greek Orthodox and then you move on with the story. Which ones do you think? I see the Bauer scenes being Curlee as she loved the Bauers...the Spaulding scenes?

Ah, here is the Matt Weiss character..were they setting up a triangle with Harley and Josh? It looks like a Mallet/Mindy was in the works.. I love that they let Grandma Sarah have some teeth with her passive aggressive attitude towards Josh. India looks great (if only they brought her back in 96 instead of de aged Amanda..) and Bev shows why she is the only Alex...she is soft to people she loves and keeps the snark for India..but still with a sense of humor..I just see Marj snarling and stuttering out the lines. I forgot that Mindy WAS running around and betraying Alex while being sweet to her..so this just shows that Alex did have a reason for the venom...it just went on to long and was eventually made to be Alex totally in the wrong. This must have been the beggining of the end for Pam Long. This was the Christmas she wanted to bring Reva back as a "ghost" to comfort Marah (thanks Pam for creating the idea of Reva as a ghost) and they wouldnt let her, and they didn't want her to develop the Matt Weiss character.

Yes, that is what I remember of Iva, Emma angry at her for leaving. I wish they had kept that push and pull between Iva and Emma and kept Iva as more of a rebel still.

I think you are right...ATWT before Marland was more free wheeling and fun (I loved it when John came to Lisa's costume party with just his street clothes..."Who are you supposed to be?" John "Mr. Nice Guy!") and you could see that she especially got Lisa..who was more subdued under Marland. Yes, every soap needs some camp.. Lucinda was camp personified and she knew it..it was like Mary Ellen was playing the part of flamboyant Lucinda...Lisa was fun and campy pre Marland...still getting into everyone's business and her appearance as the Queen on a barge at her costume party.. Marland did do camp but it was still too somber... the Castle is pure camp, as was Lilith.. When she first came on the show she was a former bad girl who was smart and fiesty..but as the years progressed.

Now I know why I stopped watching ATWT and just kept to GL. The show is so morose and wooden here. Marland really lost his "spark" from the start of his run which balanced some camp, family storylines, business, young love. The era is personified by Iva..morose and bland.

She had the best of both worlds..hopefully she was already set from her past career and she could be part of this goofy, fun show popular with a new younger audience and get paid nicely to dress up and have fun..at least I hope she thought of it that way! I always thought soaps today should do that. then we wouldnt get the repetitive desperate storylines to keep characters like Reva and Josh front and center..just let them do something else for a bit and let the show and the characters have time to breathe!

Why did Emma disappear and not return for the finale? I never liked her or the Snyders but they were there so long it was weird?

BWHAHAHA...From his airtime..that is where his talent began and ended!!

And after seeing that poor little Marty had to put his pants on and hang his head in shame!

Fletcher and Claire would good together...now I realize what Susan was saying in them ruining them. They could have still done the dumb Ed/Claire thing and had her preggers but why they made her a crazy bitch??? I also hate the Rick/Mindy thing...they were good together and Mindy changed during NY and they have her being a bitch to be spoiler with dimmie Roxie and Rick acting sanctimonious ...(O'leary always came off as an ass when he did that...) I was in college to at this time and no rich girl would wear a fur to class!!! I love the soap opera thing of someone doing something in real life which is irresponsible and get them fired...(like just leaving their job) and the writers acting like they are the victim. This was the beggining of the bad era of GL..you can see the transitioning happening here.

Why are they showing Peter Simon in the intro with Van Fleet already place? Lazy! Never liked Hillary but she was a Bauer...they didn't even need to kill her just have the bomb put her in a coma and when she wakes up she is recast. I looks like they were burying her in the BH side yard!

Bwhahaha...that pictue is so 1984 and I cant make fun of him as I laugh at my own pics from that time. I do love these reunions of all the actors without makeup or lighting...aging hits all of us. What is seen can not be unseen..thanks for that thought!

VW is very full of herself..so I think she is stretching things on her writing storylines and them taking her suggestions. P & G were notorious about not letting the actors have a say in things. I think VW was at the right place at the right time for her to become the "star" Lemay loved her..Rauch must have liked her..they did away with core family so it ended up that she was the "face" of the show.

Would P&G allow them to write a new script with an "episode" following up in present day. Bob and Kim missed their family and friends (plus, its do dull without a kidnapping a week) so they move back..what are Tom and Margo doing, etc. Lucinda and John bickering..and they would have a good reason why Fulton is not partcipating..."I had an email from Lisa...she and Grant are sheltering in place in the South of France and loving it!" That why they could dump Juicy Janet and Liberty dullness.

Yes, I dont get Alan's reluctance to let the actors say what they will. I know he doesnt want to get a reputation as a p.r. guy who then bad mouth's his former employers, but having actors recount their own experiences in not the same thing. God, I would love for someone to have JFP do one of these, Gail Kobe, and of course, Curlee and Long. The Dobsons are still kicking around arent they...would love to hear what crazy ass Bridget would say.

I will still like to know why P & G and CBS allowed a change of tone to happen. It started earlier in the fall of 84 and into 85 with Beruit thing and the Bauers and Reardons being obscured. The show was getting great ratings and then the floor fell out. I would love to see Susan pop up on all of Alan's videos, just for him to get that sour poo face he does when things go a bit off the rails..(she even says to him "Oh I know that you CAN'T say anything") Her face could pop up in a bubble, like Tabitha would on Passion's to make rude comments about what was going on..."So I had to reach deep down inside myself to find the anger to play that"...Susan in a pop up bubble, "Was it McTavish, who wrote it???? Was Frank the grip guy on set..he was all kinds of handsy and his breathe always smelled like onions..") I forgot to mention Jay seeming to be dismayed with working with Marj after Bev. Her nervous stuttering made her the Eileen Fulton of GL and was totally wrong for iron willed Alex.

They both look great...I remember in college thinking he was the shits...he looks like he aged naturally and he comes off so calm and "normal" Krista is so sweet and she is a calmer Mindy. Just watched the Jay and Susan reunion..holy [!@#$%^&*] that woman is great! Jay was trying to be polite and would talk over her...(something he did as Fletch all the time that was annoying..) to interrupt and Ms. Susan would not let it go! She looks like she would be a fun neighbor..ready to have a few drinks and let it fly!I hope McTavish never bumps into her..Megan is going to be missing some hair! I did like that she was alluding to GL going into a dark time with those two characters, but it was really the whole show that was going dark..and going into a very bad period..she was kind of alluding to it and trying to find out who was responsible but kept being derailed. Its interesting that even the actors were mystified what was going on. I forgot about Jay and Pam and he writing for the show. He was a lucky man, Long is a beautiful smart woman and she looks like the type who would not take anyone's crap so he must be a nice guy. I like that he says she was always late .."and still is!"

LOL..okay, I am beating a dead horse... I guess I should have hung it up after I (supposedly) made Frankie D's wife cry about what I had to say about the Coopers. I remember not believing how much misogyny was in Westen's writing...she was an older woman..and she has Cassie screwing the man who tired to kill her sister and her nephew, Reva supporting it, Jeffery O'Neil acting like a woman hating ass and it was supposed to be HOT..The Garden of Eden plot line where Marina, who at that time was a tough cookie, had to be saved of course by little twink Shayne...and the worst, Alex turned from the savy Joan Collins ball buster, into a drug dealing woman in bed with the mob who drugged her own brother (instead of using her brains to keep her power) who ultimately was beat by something stupid (a camera she would have know about) and forced to whimper while Alan gloated..then became this annoying shrew that no wanted to be around.

I love KT as Mindy but she just never aged..physically (good for you KT) or mentally as a character..(When she came back and JC's Alex had compromising pictures of her all I could see was her being rude to a sales girl..now Sims I could see in some pics.) I was a big Rick and Mindy fan and they should have been end game but earlier then the last episode.. I would have had them get together after Abby left instead of boring Mel and they could have been the nice kind of normal non drama couple in town. Butch Hillary HAHAHAHA Fletch got annoying in later years with Holly when he was walking all over her lines. However, he worked where Buzz didn't as a guy not in the core families but connected to them all. McTrash shoulda killed Buzzard for her start of the Marion story, that would have had the soap press in a tizzy "Acting LEGEND Deas let go"

So another one we can blame on Buzz/JD!! Not that I liked Fletcher any better but he was tied to the Bauers and around a long time so I was used to being annoyed by him. Maybe it was when GL started budget cuts and it was up to Deas and Jay..Deas has to thank his lucky stars that somehow the soap industry thinks spitting, arm flapping and yelling are signs of great acting!

The part did indeed need the recast...KT was basically the nice, but spoiled princess, every "bad" thing she did was due to a spoiled fit, where KS was more mature in her "bad girl" persona so it had more mileage.