Mitch

They always should have made the remaining Santos mob adjacent. Have Daddy Santos be a small time hood enforcer for a mob. Carmen's secret backstory is that she was forced into prostitution and married Santos to get out. The first Santos that was killed was their son but Danny is really the son of Gus's dad a cop, that Daddy Santos then killed, and then attacking Carmen she kills him. After that..she tries to be legitimate but her shady ways get in the way. This gives Carmen some rootability and extends Gus out of just Harley and keeps him from the brain dead "Hes Alans' son!" I really like SS but man, the ridiculous mob boss in a pastel suit Cruella Deville worked against her and the show every time, and sweet PAS never worked as a mobster in training. The Winslows just sucked.

MADD just loved her forumla and Manny were one of them, despite them not working after the recast. Would have loved to see Danny with a renewed hardscrabble Cassie..and think it would be hilarious to see Carmen threaten a scowling screeching Cassie. Why do some soap viewers invest so much in a couple despite recasts and not working and its just tired and over with?

Lord, yes, the boring Vicky smiling all the time. The first Vicky was better and they brought her on as the clone docs assistant..(how she had medical knowledge plus her busienss but..) and then after Michael blew up the lab to protect the clone secrets Van went on a rampage and exposed her as Vicky Spaulding. They were making Van more back to her bad girl days and more like Alex, a strong woman who did not take any [!@#$%^&*], and it looked like Alan and Vicky vs. Van as president .. all interesting stuff and would have given Matt a reason to fall into Beth's bed with his newly ruthless wife, but then they brought back Alex B & E said Vicky's story couldnt be told without Alex, Van went back to sighing all the time, Alex disappeared without a trace and they recast Vicky into the smiling woman who did nothing. Typical B & E. I can only think they were gearing up to Van vs. Alan over Spaulding with Matt going for Beth but it all fell apart and was changed, etc. I dont think she is but if she was she would have made a great Vicky...I LOVED her character, it just wasnt Amanda! I remember the time she was locked into a shed in winter, but got out, went to the Country Club, had cocktails with Dinah, and went back and pretended to have been locked in the whole time. It was actually also one of the only times I liked Marj's verison of Alex, the two of them had great bitchy chemistry.

Its too bad the Vicky Spaulding was boring and didnt fit into Rauch's "Blond Babes" GL. I would have given most of Toby Poser's Amanda material to Vicky.(leaving out the Malibu Madame).who didn't agree with her mother allowing Alex to have the bulk of Brandon's estate and comes to claim her own power. She would be hostile to Alex and side with Alan on all his fights with Alex, etc. Alex, having a good relationship with Victoria (as she stayed out of her way) would have no idea why Vicky was hostile. Having a strong black woman taking on the white establishment in a soap opera way would have been interesting, but way beyond the GL that would not allow Gilly to be paired with AM and certainly not in Rauch/MADD cartoon world.

He actually looks like he enjoys doing them and he seems to have a real appreciation for the shows. I can't beleive anyone there BTS had an appreciation and knowledge of the past. It just seems to support that P & G and the net was constantly interfering.

I loved HB but realize he is not everyone's cup of tea. Never a fan of SB and I know I am in the minority there, He is a good actor but his Craig, even when bad, was so weak..his "love" always came off as obsessive and needy to me, even with Sierra or whomever. But that's me. What I don't get is why HB left GL? He was great as Ben Warren, (instead of Ross brother I would have made him Ed and Rita's kid to give the Bauers a kick in the ass. I actually like him with BC who was the first guy I liked her with on GL.

Its odd as that baby story could have played out with Mo being alive instead of giving it to Van. Mo leaves Ed and takes over the Boarding House..Bridget is preggers, and Mo says we will raise the baby together..lets say she does not know Hart is the father. Bridget sees how much Mo loves the kid and lets her adopt the kid while she can still be in his life. They do that for a while, and she and Ed get together..there would be no custody battle but drama when all finds out that Ed is the adoptive father of Rogers grandson. Ed was to blame and I am sorry, I know Simon is a good actor but he is such a COLD fish! And the only reason Jill listened to the focus groups is that she wanted to free up money to hire Deas and turn the show into the Buzz Hour..which we all know how well that worked out. Anyone who works with focus groups know how easy they are to sway into corporate line of thinking. I am sure Jill showed Mo cleaning the kitchen or something and wow..she's boring. Of course, the focus group was probably full of viewers who think clones, fairy princes, and the Real Housewives drunkenly screaming at each other is exciting..(okay, I love the drunken HWs of New York schreeching at each other but..)

She gave an interview, in typical Jilly fashion, where the mistake was not to kill off Maureen, but to make people love her too much! What an idiot.

Hey, 80,000 aint bad and good for her for starting a career over and taking care of herself and her kids. I will give her this, at least she isnt going to the old Gus/Harley pump like CC is doing time and time again with whatsherfface. Wheeler was the one who saw Bruno and NuMallet obvioulsy gigling in corners of the studio and saw there "amazing chemistry" and put them together, forcing Harley to be paired with that Chippendales Dancer looking guy, which Harley would never go for. I love Mormon Right wing Wheeler and her moral relativity..."Hey that guy cheating on his wife with another member of the cast is so cute with that girl, lets pair them up." VW always seemed like such a pretentious b*tch to me..never got her popularity. While she can be too much sometimes, at least Zimmer never took herself that seriously!

I Yea, that story really makes her look like the toxic person she seemed to be near the end of her run on GL (and as Zimmer referred to in her book.) But it looks as if she may have got her act together now..good for her. She admits in the interview that she had no identity out of acting..(weird that she was a mom and saying that but..) so maybe she did fixate on Harley. However, instead of becoming more like Harley (the down to earth, complicated girl..) they seemed to make Harley more like Ehlers (brittle, shrill and unpleasant.) I remember right with Kriezman suddenly Harley was the Reva of old.. no man could resist her and she became skinny (remember the superhero show which seemed to be created just to show off her abs) and more angular and..blonder..(was she trying to compete with Wright??) Its interesting that no one ever mentions her in all these interviews. I have to love the LM comment that she was keeping GL on the air...uh, I doubt he cared two sh*ts about the show. Reminds me of VW from Another World is constantly said that the head of the network only kept the show on because of her..uh..right. All in all, good to have a career outside of acting!

Poor Frankie D, they never knew what to do with him once the first Eleni left, but having him with Chele, who was like a kid sister to him? Weird and FD did not have the charisma to pull that off and pairing him with chem free NSA was a killer. Frank falls in that area with Fletcher..back ground characters and support, nice to see them around like it was a real town where people were living their lives while DRAMA takes place elsewhere. I did like Fletch when he was being a buddy to Ed, Ross and he was great with Reva. Though instead of having Nadine get killed by Brent, Fletcher would have been good. He is on to some scheme of Rogers, maybe Rog and Brent had a side deal where Brent was going to bilk Spaudling, the fight they had takes place in front of all to see while Fletcher investigation of Brent leads him to Marion, and gets him killed. Brent frames Roger, Holly goes full on Holly neurotic (they had a fight and Fletch storms out the night he is killed) Alex is on the warpath, et.Ed would take Ben in and keeps Holly in his orbit, etc.

I didn't say it worked, just that it happened. Too bad cause Phillip and Liv were HOT!!! That would have been great, maybe instead of Joan as Alex (which I loved) it was Matteson as Hope who came back to take over, and fight Phillip and Alan for Spaulding for AM. Imagine Hope in charge of the Ex Wives club!

Hey, I loved CC on GL..but she had problems. She was the one who sent out rumors that GA was hard to work with and that is the reason he was fired...(GA was difficult when it came to the story making sense, which didn't at that time...) then tried to pin it on Wheeler (she was a terrible producer but she is not that kind of person.) Roscoe Born as Alan..wow, a sexy Alan and not a blustering windbag? Wasnt Born too young, and how did RR survive as long as he did, if anything, I prefered Marj's Alex over RR's Alan and THAT is saying a lot!

She was a terrible Annie but it was also too soon to go to that well which had run dry near Watros leaving. MADD loved her formula and if she thought something worked she just repeated and repeated... I thought her character should have been a nut that Annie seduced (I would have it be real but we could leave it ambiguous) into going back to SF for revenge. Maybe she was a cop obsessed with Annie and assigned to catching but obsessed with her. Or just a nut who thinks she is Annie but is not. I love how Newman was making fun of that storyline and the infamous "Sit DOWN, Josh!" Having Ken form a bond with Annie would be way too deep and complex for Rauch/Madd.

The cool thing about Zimmer is that she can..in hindsight, admit fault. I do think that she sees and appreciates talent but it had to have been hard to have Watros looking at her best, getting so much screen time and fun stuff to do and getting accolades. I think it also hurt her that the Annie story got more attention then the year previously when Reva came back from the dead. It also was a time that Kimmer was aging and while looking good was a 20 something babe anymore in Rauchie's sexist GL with all the younger babes like Watros and Chamberlin running around. At the time she gave an interview where she had to say something like "Tsk, tsk Cassie" and she said..."They are indeed turning me into Bert Bauer." Plus Zimmer comes off as someone who just gets along with guys better. Wright was very very aggressive and ambitious and wanted Cassie to always be in the spolight and in the right, (the famous interview where she would go drinking with B & E and suggest changes and story.) I always thought they should have written Cassie closer to Wright, a bitch that could cut you if she didnt get her own way. Chappel, well she had problems with GA and I loved Liv but she could be a backstabber when she needed to be. Im on team Zimmer on that one.

I am in the minority here but I hated Cullen..she was so drab. I loved Poser but like Marj's Alex, it was a completely different character. As I said, I think she would have made a great character different from Amanda and had the same storyline..maybe she WAS a Malibu Madame who made enough money to buy huge chunks of Spaulding stock...(maybe they had a lube factory somewhere..) or just a grifter who had an affair with Matt while married to a rich guy who owned ton of Spaulding stock and he mysteriously dies and Matt and she are implicated somehow..then it would come out that Matt was someone who conned and bilked older rich women in another life, leading Van to question their relationship..which in my GL world would lead Matt sleeping with Blake not Rick, and her being preggers with just his kid. However, if casting for Amanda someone like Nancy Lee Graham, who is convincing as a smart biz woman. What I would like know is what was McTavish's orginal plan for this storyline? Originally Roger said to Vannessa that no matter what, Alan always cowed to Alex, and that she must have something on him.

Hmm, maybe J and M lived there. The stone hid Brandon's will right, or something about Amanda's true parentage. I remember scene after scene of characters sitting in front of the fireplace with their hand on the stone..hokey, but the kind of hokey I love on soaps. Speaking of..is there anyway they could have saved the Amanda is Brandon's daughter storyline? I mean, for starters it was dumb as Poser was younger then GA so how could it have happened. But is there anyway Brandon could have been her father..didn't the original will leave all of Spaudling to Amanda? I would have kept it as Alan was the father and then have all three kids take the place of the tired Alan vs. Alex storyline but I can see why a writer would find that interesting.

Right before Rauch left in January of that year he "refreshed" all the sets, including the Bauer living room, which at Christmas of that year looked great. I think we MAY have seen it during Wheeler once, when those stinky ass Coopers moved in to stink up the joint with their...stink. I do know that Jeva's house..(formerly Vanessa's ) was falling apart when Wheelie too over so maybe the Bauer living room did too, and I know it was HUGE so most likely they couldn't show it. Reva bend became Holly;s house but they showed her buying it..how it suddenly became the farm....

Could they get any duller? As much as I find Frankie boring, he was on there long enough, he should be included with some other vets . Rafe????

Havent watched it yet..but would love to see a new one with iconic couples. as someone mentioned up thread Peter Simon and Ellen Parker (would love to hear what they had to say about JFP and Mo's death) Maeve Jordon and yes, Kurt, O'Leary and Krista, Or just them and Lisa Brown who would have no trouble giving her opinion I am sure! I would also love to see some writers involved, but only if they could spill about producers the net and why storyline changed and what they loved or hate about them. Most of them are going to be still in the industry so they dont want to burn bridges. The ulitimate would be to have Pam Long and Nancy Curlee!

I can remembering watching this episode, but I don't remember where my keys are... Who knew sexy Tom would grow up to be annoying Buzz? Who knew that someone else could be more frenetic and annoying in a scene then even Deas...(Fulton on her clown hair, desperate to get attention making Lisa a hyper active ditz...) The early 80's threw up on both Fashions and Ellen's bachelorette pad! ATWT cornered the market in peach paint that year. Ellen is looking very pretty and young there, David looks like her father, and its a killer to see poor Chris Hughes treated as an extra with no lines even hearing old family nemises John is "dead" F you Dobsons and MEB, wouldnt have hurt you to give the guy a scene, or even grandfatherly comforting to Margo. Forgot about Bilan who is actually cute there and seemed to have potential. But I thought Miranda had potential but after she married Bob she faded away. She would have been an interesting grey character in the midst of the Hughes...starting a fashion business and maybe being like an early Lucinda, not evil but maybe cuthroat in business to Bob's dismay and if Nancy was there a perfect opp for her to clash with her glam biz woman daughter in law...again, lost opp to the Dobs and Bumin.

I like what you said about wearing down the artifice on Reva...I always felt Reva being "REVA"! was to hide that she still felt like the trashy daughter of a drunk and the Lewis maid..and was playing a part that men wanted to see her in..but then she was okay with being Reva Shayne. I would never have had her with Jeffie..I would have had her on her own after Josh left, starting a business, (again, I think she would have made a great bar owner pouring drinks and getting into eveyone's business..) and then when Josh came back to her they took in long and slow, finally realizing its okay to be on her own as she said in the finale..."On my own? Being surrounded by family and friends and healing." Or something like that. I would have loved to have seen Reva with Bridget as a daughter in law! Peter in town and step granny Reva taking care of him..and Nola making guest appearances arguing with her over Peter. God, I would be in gay 1984 heaven!

Hell I would be too! Totally agree with this! Kimmer looks like Reva would have actually looked, not scary skinny Lucci, but a gall who lived her life and had huge appetites for food, booze and men! She should have been the one running Company not Buzzard...I would have her behing the bar, a smoke and a brown drink smaking the [!@#$%^&*] out of the dummies of SF when they brought her their problems. I do believe she was isolated in the Lewis bubble and then the Annie bubble and then in Rauch Goddess bubble, which is too bad. Zimmer is one of those soap actors who have easy friendly chemistry with everyone..kind of like O'leary..Parker when she was on the show, etc. She did briefly but it was in relation to Newman's story about Zaz..."Oh yes, remember Sebastian?"

I think she like it as James/Babs/Gunnar were part of about 8 characters the Dobsons wrote for and those people got a LOT of airtime...(this included John/Dee/Tom/Margo/Betsy/Steve..) so she liked it. She was THE heroine of the show at that time. I didn't mind Henry and Babs except I just wish they would have admitted he was gay...on the eve of their wedding they could have had a talk and either Babs would let him go and be his bestie and still have fun, or they could have gone ahead and gotten married...("Okay, you go with your guys and Ill go with mine but we keep it discreet: ) now wouldnt that have blown Bob and Kim's minds!!! Hey, I love Kimmer but we all know she has an ego and she knows how to play to the fans. Nothing wrong with that..its cutthroat out there...I can seem Kimmer right up there with the golden age movies starts playing the game..Joan Crawford would meet her match!! : )

Just watching this one and the GL one and look at the difference with our divas. Zimmer who never was a loss for ego comes off as charming, funny and appreciative and supportive of the other actors and Colleen just comes off as brittle and cold..no matter how hard she tries. Can you imagine both of them on one show back in their heyday??!?!!!