Mitch

Agree on all the points people made on this topic, but I grew up in a town in Central Illinois and too international companies ADM and Staley's (well, parent company Tate & Lyle) were based there. (its such a weird town that Warren Buffet's son lives there and is now the unpaid Sheriff) So its not totally weird but those businesses are related to farm and agriculture, not Lewis Oil (why the f*ck did that move to Springfield) and God knows what Spaulding or Walsh Enterprises actually produced. I can even see a media company in the 80s being situated in a midwest town in the center of the country..but they needed to explain that ( "Darling this is a burg, but the cost of living is so low we don't have to pay as much and I have easy access to all my stations in the country.") What I hated was all the Yachts (uh, a yacht on a lake in a landlocked town???) and international flights coming in and out.

I keep expecting Lucinda to rush in the room.."AMBROSE!" Wow, Marj on Capitol, not screeching or stuttering! RIP Marj!

As an avowed Buzz hater..I actually liked him when he first came on as he was supposed to be a cheesy con man who looked like he kind of smelled. I remember a scene of his working at Lewis and he is fake talking on a phone and Van comes in, and quietly goes over and plugs the phone back in..."I think you may hear better now." Then they made him a heart throb, gosh darn it, just a misunderstood guy and he when full on suckage! LOL.. I remember when she was on, wasnt she supposed to be an intern at Spaulding...(with that big ass head of hair!!!)

I see Amanda in the likeness of BevAlex...smart, savy, ruthless when needed...but with a heart. Battling the boys for dominance by pitting Phillip and AM at each other. Phillip trying to step into Alan's shoes and finding its not easy to be the Spaulding patriarch. and Alex taking Phillip's side against AM and Amanda and AM having his Bauer side finally coming out and being conflicted with the whole thing. A Harley recast who wasnt whiney and shrill, I don't think I would recognize her..

The Grady kill is hilarious..I wonder if its on You Tube? Remember when Wheeler was trying to make Grady the new Jonathon...but even Jon was not that hideous or have a death on him? She was going around telling people that the "New Viewers," love him. Oh Ellie, Ellie, Ellie, there were no NEW viewers! A take down of a sane Phillip would have been great with Blake and Dinah actually joining forces. It would of course end with the reveal that Ross was alive...but what great fall out. The end result would be something like Kyle comes back with Dinah and Blake and takes over Spaulding, the stress kills Alan (for real and for good)and in the surprise being that Amanda is really pulling the strings with her lover Kyle come in and take it all out from under them...setting up Phillip, Alan Michael and Amanda fighting with Alex acting as the Dowager Countess, referring and making smart remarks. Of course, they would need a budget for that, I would not want to see the Spauldings squabbling at the Peapack Baseball Diamond. And no, God no, no more Harley!

Yes, I think that Crazed Phillip story line should have been treated just like the clone and jumping through paintings, never to be mentioned again. Its too bad though, it had as always potential, but for some reason Wheeler wanted to turn Phillip into James Stenbeck and have both he and Rick have hands in killing Ross????

Agreed..they could have made her Mini Reva but the actress came across as so sweet and happy and not in a Jessie kind of way, she still had spunk. Agreed her acting wasnt the greatest but you could tell she took it seriously and she got better. Sometimes in TV and soaps, an actor's warmth and personality can make up for a lot.

Mel had potential when she showed she had fire...like when she was opposed to Phillip. That was actually good to have a Bauer and Rick's partner not cowed by Phillip and they should have kept that up...not them fighting up Mel never taking Phillips [!@#$%^&*] and calling him on it and calling Beth out to. She didn't know the Four M's and Abby just saw the good in everyone so she would be different. I like the Bauer Matrirarch being a black woman who was strong and good and with a career. I just dont think the actress and MOL had a zilch of chemistry with each other. But ulitmately Rick and Mindy (KT) would have been my go to for next Bauer Couple. Loved them.

And the weird thing, both Bridget and Matt should have seen Ed as a surrogate father..extending the Bauer family. The writers did do some of this but Simon just had no connection with anyone and seemed so shut off. I would have recast a year after Mo's death..the Bauer's didn't necessarily need a matriarch as anyone else was going to be compared to Bert and Mo, but they could have recast Ed to be the warmer patriarch. That's one of the reasons I hated what they did with Rick and the acting ticks O"Leary jumped to...at his best MOL had nice chemistry with everyone and was a kind of warm guy people would respond to, but the writers insisted Rick was a loser and MOL couldnt get over the fact that he would never be a romantic lead or dramatic character and jumped into mugging to get attention.

THAT would have been a great idea...especially with all the changes happening at once, with Mike, gone, Hillary killed off and Bert off canvas (they couldnt help that but they relied too much on Charita being there to say "See, the Bauers are still important to us.) An old face would have been great. O'Rourke took to the hall playing bag pipes to protest, very funny. That was too stupid to fire him right after the Phillip reveal...he had years and years of fighting with Alan and Alex...hmm. I could see him with BevAlex... I wonder what that was about. I would love a no holds barred interview with Long explaining that choice and dozens of others.

She said when she came back that she and Hays and Hastings still spoke and saw each other from time to time, and when she came back for that day Wagner was giving her tips on how to do her scene and she was totally cool with it!

I think Simon has his own money and didn't need the soap work..so he was less tolerant then other actors of..well, probably everything. I wonder if he is the vet in Tina Sloan's book who got out of his contract early cause of the way they were pushing all vets aside. I know he really, really fought the "Michelle slap" and I agree with him. I do have to say, some of his demands were a bit off...(I actually think Nola and Ed could have worked if written correctly, but still think Nadine would have been good with Ed, give him a zip and he could bring her down to earth. ) I never understood when Simon left in 96 they didn't recast Mike? He could have had a wife who could be a new Bauer matriarch...(but I still wanted to see him with Alex..though Dusay in a love scene would scare the HELL out of me...) I just don't understand Marland's feeling that Simon was sexier then MH as that was not the case..(I think Marland had a thing against..."bigger" guys who wernt muscle boys.

Simon is a really good actor, and agreed, he is just soooo DOUR which as was pointed out a change from Mart's Ed who was sunny, and had the Charita Bauer earthy thing about him. He looks way more like he would be MOL'd dad, and it is sad about MOL...who also had that happy big brother ready to help thing, but later on he always tried to be a "dramatic," actor and failed and relied on goofball material. It didnt help that the writers could not see that a nice uncomplicated cute guy could be viable in a soap world.

I love the Emmy spinning at the end..okay GL we got it. Why did Brandon leave Amanda all that "stock" in his will? I know the eventual truth but why and how did it get reversed....could that have played into the dumb "Amanda is really Brandon's daughter" thing? Love vixen Van slinking around town annoying all the women. I like that they have Amanda sitting at the fireplace with her hand on that rock which holds the truth..probably months down the line. I have to say, I still think MH was sexy as Ed ( I know, its weird) much more then PS ever was. Morgan really was the prototype for Lily...a sixteenth birthparty, everyone talking about it, about her and hottie Ben just "Dying to paint her!"

Yes they were supposed to pair Matt up with Lucy..one can only hope Phelps didn't plan on turning Van into a harpy like she did Alex...with Van berating poor widdle Lucy. I don't know how to say this without being insulting but I think Matt and Van, as the stupid Richard and Cassie thing, fulfilled the fantasies of a certain segment of the fanbase and they just went nuts...kind of like the Olivia and whatsherface gay storyline made a certain segment of the lesbian fan base go nuts despite the fact that it wasnt that great of a story reallly.

I was watching the Josh/Annie wedding scenes on You Tube where Alex crashes to let everyone know Reva is still alive..once I got over the fact that they had so MANY characters in the scenes I was just saddened to see Alex reduced to schreiking pain in the ass. I tried to imagine Bev Alex doing that and be told by Vanessa to "go home" like she was a child, but couldn't ...(I see Bev more like the EQ on Once..walking in and "Sorry I'm late..." and everyone just shutting up!) I read somewhere that Marj was a team player and she did exactley what was on the page and as directed so you can compare her hysterics in those scenes with the confrontation with FauxAnnie in the Spaulding Attic and see what might have been if she had been written correctly.)

I remember that...they were having a FIT about the love scene done on a couch and not on a bed...(says a lot about the Mattessas' that they thought that was the only place to have sex..) There was a distinct change right after that were you could tell they were taking out their annoyance with the Mattessa's with the characters. I remember the Pharley fans were that way too...(though the board gave great synopsis of the episodes and some good comments..) I think the Rauch/Kinkade thing went by the wayside...she went on recurring during McLaiby (with the dumbest plot ever..) and Rauch said he asked her back when he saw her in the hallway. Whatever you say about Rauch, I think he respected talent and was more into putting on the show then grudges...(i.e. MADD.) I agree that the Wheeler regime did best by Van..I remember she didn't even take [!@#$%^&*] from Cassie when she came back...and they even had Reva say she has "Always been a little afraid of you!" and Olivia "Oh, I think you could be the mother in law from hell if I got on your bad side!" maybe it was Hurst that put the zing back in Van but it was cool. I don't think they should have ever recast Alex..like Bert Bauer and Reva, that was unrecastable, they should have just had Van step in as the Ice Queen kicking Alan's ass.

Labine loved Buzz/Holly/Billy but the net thought they were too old so she used them as filler. I still think Deas had more fans in the industry then he did in the viewing audience...it should have been Ed/Holly/Billy, three damaged alcoholics who support one another, Ed was always Billy's sponsor and his friend, so it would be interesting to have Ed develop feeling for Holly again, while Billy does too, and Holly torn, as they remain friends. Maybe they are starting a rehab clinic together, Billy using Lewis money, Ed being the doc and Holly organizing and it slowly developes. That would be the backdrop for introducing Mel, but I would make her a hard driving lawyer/community activist...(Rick is too much of a mensch to have another softie as his partner..) who sees the effects of the Santos crime has on a changing 5th and 7th Street hood ( I hated how they stocked 5th Street with cliched Greek "ethnic" types to make it looks urban during Phelps time) as POC and immigrants move in.(Mabye her family or another black family buys the Boardinghous and Company, better then the Coopers) She would also be resistant to the Spauldings...not for the usual reasons but because she sees their use of labor, etc. That would put her at odds with Phillip, and much to his surprise Rick has her back still. I like the Bauer matriarch being a person of color, it makes sense but maybe I would make her a latina to offset the image of the bad Latino Santos. She and Rick would compliment each other. The Van/Matt/Beth triangle could have worked but not the way Rauch drove it (the sexy young sex toy taking away the hunk from the old crone.) I would have it that Van was bored with Matt (a woman who could go toe to toe with Alan, Alex and Roger would quickly bore of her boy toy) and increasingly spend time at work, Matt would be attracted to Beth and actually help her find her good side (Beth would not be trolling after him or cutting down Van) and maybe I would recast Kyle Sampson as he tries to take over Lewis again and Van joins in the fray but she is attracted to a mature biz guy...(end game would be Billy of course but not now.) Rauch/Madd were too fixated on a boring good girl/dumb guy/evil vixen triangle that it just became so boring.

They ended them together like when they put Holly in a kinda triangle with Billy and Buzz, just because they were people in the same age range. Poor Blake, ending up marrying the dullest guy in town.

Good lord I almost fell asleep just watching that...Simon and Jesse, the hallmark of that really bad time in GL history.

God I loved that and I loved Abuela..the only Santos of interest who looked like they could actually be dangerous. Remember the weird scene with Selena I think where she got up out of her wheelchair and started walking around and then sat back down, never to be mentioned again. She made Carmen look like Catalina. I wanted to see Abuela vs. Aunt Meta..the evil matriarch vs the good matriarch..and both knew how to use a gun.

LOL..okay, now I remember poor dull Catalina who got conked on the head with a statue or whatever and no one really cared.

To show how bad this was...I don't even remember Romeo Jones..who the hell was he?

I wasnt a big fan of Helmet Hair Frannie..she and Helmet Hair Emily could have destroyed sets with all that fluff. Yea, Smith was an odd choice, I could see him as a dippy pretty boy but this rich man in charge of things..no. Wasnt this the storyline where the Nanny was inseminated or pregnant, and someone threw her off a balcony and you saw her obvious dummy body fly past Frannies window? I do have to hand it to Lisa, to be polite in the best Marland Oakdalian way, but also bitchy..that is a talent!

LOL..I HATED that storyline...(God I hate Rex Smith..and he was too young to be in Margo's class and for Babs..) but that was typical ATWT...everyone reacting but too polite (except Babs) to say it out loud...I love the Kim and Bob faces.