Mitch

No..it was Rauch and his love for blasting the lights which he brought over from ABC. God, the monarchy and the mob crap...so damn boring...and for a show so worried about demos, so damn retro silly. Who knew the highlight would be a discussion between Frank and Blake as old friends..just talking? I still think they should have made Ross and Blake the core talk to couple...LK never was good with the bitchy Blake she was always too nice and warm.

Interesting..good, I am glad they just didn't dump her.

It was like they had to get rid of her so as not to remind the viewers that Steve was married before Betsy. Carol could have been a good support character, they could have just had her marry her minister (her real life husband) and still work for Lisa at Fashions and be there, not necesarily with a story line. She could have given Steve some advice with Betsy and be one of the people to stand up to Nick.

Lord..all of Larry's dullness rubbed off on Susan! I really hated that Marland never let her go full force off on Lisa..when Lisa confronted her about her affair and wouldn't let it go. Open marriage Susan would have called Lisa out for being a sl*t herself. "Lisa, I have sex because I like it, not to find a man to give me self worth. Now take your feathered boa and get the hell out of here!"

LOL...Warren seems waayyy too happy to be introduced to Simon in that clip!

I remember this episode...James too Susan out on a date??? I liked Joan Crawford Susan better then the boring Mom she became.

YES!!! Accidents keep happening to Reva...er..what the hell did they call her, and we think its Eddie and Liv who are always caught conspiring behind a palm tree, but it is really the crazy Aunt, and it all just because Reva annoys the hell out of her! I see Robin Strasser in a wig but I don't think you could have Zimmer and Strasser on the same set without huge chunks being devoured. He was absolutely the WORST..I mean, Reva went for annoying sometimes...(Buzzard) but never boring! It was made worse that he of course was part of the San Crud clan, and he went from a doctor with a fine taste in art (though played by a guy who made Grillo look like a scientist) and then a secret agent??? Yea, it was weird, again instead of San Crud it could have been Kyle who found Reva and kept her hidden all those years... and Liv could be the woman he married once he thought Reva was dead..again...Alan at that time had run his course, not only because of RR's bombastic air but he was just done. I would have killed Alan off and had Phillip move up to patriarch and have Kyle be the thorn in the Spaulding side, uniting them with the Lewis clan to fight off his attacks. Or maybe Kyle's new wife is Amanda..(what do we think of CC as Amanda, still too young?) who is using Kyle to help her make her rightful claim on Spaulding. Peter came back with RealDylan for H.B.'s funeral and Van hugged him but it seemed more like a doting Aunt then his Mom. I wish they had addressed that as it was such a big plot point, but I could see Van letting Peter go with Bridge but staying in his life. Good God no.Jessie and Simon needed to fade in the past as they rightfully did,

I have said before it wasnt really the actors or the characters "potential" that was the problem, it was the sloppy writing, making the characters BIG but they just looked silly and the shoving it down our throats. I think the Santos could have worked as less mob and more "fringe" family with connections to crime. Carmen as a widow of a mobster who wanted to move her family away from crime and more into legit territory by using Chele to social climb. That itself would be a dramatic point, the girl Carmen blames for her son's death (I would have had him fake it to escape some trouble) is her ticket out of the sleaze. Danny should have been more disgusted by his families history but not able to write them off etc. Michelle finding herself slowly falling in love with a sensitive man that is as trapped by his family as she is.. I would have tossed San Crud totally and had the Winslows be more gothic, a family living in a moldering mansion in the Keys, who Richard took Reva in and fell in love with would be the same, yet not as silly. Maybe his first wife died and he is hiding behind the walls, ala Jane Eyre...Edmund is perpetually broke and living off his brothers good will and scheming to inherit the fortune so he puts hot to trot Liv to marry Richard to swindle him. Reva would not make a good gothic heroine, but if they had cast as they were thinking of, that guy from AW who played the lawyer, there could be plenty of chemistry and a good triangle as she finds herself. Both storylines could work with the actors and characters but tweaked to bring it down to earth. Well, I would have never cast Brad Cole...I HATE BC...

Actually, it was McLaiby who brought back Nola. I do like that Nola came back on her own and I think she could have been a continuing fixture of GL to the end. I would have had Quint die off camera so when she came back she was not so bitter (and give Brown better writing and direction to drop her Ivaing of Nola.) Nola ending up back in the Boardinghouse running Company and being good with it in direct opposition to what she wanted when she was young. Nola would have been like Marland's Lisa, an eccentric support for the younger people in Springfield when they screw up. Anyway I started watching the rest of the videos of the Engagement episode and it got better ..so much happening that even the sucky stuff went by in a flash. The build up to the shooting, the court case battle for Spaulding looming. Alex hating on Mindy was getting old even then but Marj could do better when not screeching and popping those eyes..an interesting scene with Van and Alex in the bathroom and damn, Garret was looking SEXY. All the pieces were there for the wheels to come off though.

Good God that was bad..Buzz was starting to take over...I can't believe that Curlee was involved in Lucy, and shrieking hissing Marj/Alex..what a weird change from Bev... That would have been great...I can't believe that DInah did not have a bigger reaction about Ross, with he and Henry gone she lost her two anchors.

I think that he looked way too young for Chele, and even if they were not together, they were friends and supposed to be the same age...(oh what they could have done with them...when Chele was breaking up with Danny but found out she was preggers I wanted a sham marriage with Bill and Chele. Van would have loved to have Mo's kid as her daughter in law and I would have had Bill be gay but hiding it from Billy.) I also think that he looked like a normal kid and not a soap hunk and well, he wasnt the world's greatest actor (not that it meant anything on GL from 96 on but..)

Its odd to see RR in this, being, kind of sexy, and how quickly his Alan became a windbag. I still think he was wrong for the part...(always thought he woudl make a good Mike Bauer instead..) but can see why they cast him as a kind of more roguish Alan.

Could Jeff look anymore bored at the wedding? Diana's apartment or hotel room looked like the 80s spewed all its horrible designs in one place, it seems weird to see Kim making eyes at anyone else but Bob, Whit looks like a nasty old perve, that toupe is too much. Lucinda is just a name drop at this time, and I love the line..."What are you doing here? There is a contract out on your life!" Only on a soap!

LOL..I went back to watch a few scenes from JoanAlex on You Tube. What a strange period..the show was getting back to itself and there was some good writing, history being used and of course, a bonafide star/celebrity on the show and then when Rauch left MADD let it all go to hell. Why? Anyway, there are some great lines from Joan and she oozed self confidence as Alex....( my fave line after Carmen tried to threaten her..."Well I AM Alexandra SPAULDING and I couldn't care less!" ) and some lines I just imagine Marj shrieking out while Joan purred them out "Oh Mindy, no one held a gun to your head!" Anyway, its just amazing that in a short time they bring back Marj, Alex starts screaming and throwing chairs, she becomes Reva's stalker, Alan gets the best of her, then we are led to believe she was dealing drugs all along???

Didn't Long have it in the back of her mind that she was Chrissy, but did not reveal that yet, and then the producer cast Dennehy during the writer's strike? I remember ED saying that the headwriter hated her and she couldn't figure out why. I always kind of felt sorry for her. All this talk of Blake reminds me of another lost opportunity in casting with Lizzie. Lizzie should have been very, very complex and they first made her a silly valley girl, then a psycho, then back to a valley girl with the second recasting. Marci Ryan was cute as hell and it wanst her fault, she was just miscast (maybe Mindy and Rick's love child yes, she was way too bright and sunny to be a Spaulding.)

I think Reva, even in her "hey day" had compassion...even if she had to trip over her big mouth a couple of times to find it. I can't imagine the pre resurrection Reva gloating and I think that it why I came to loose interest in her...and when Crasshold came into being those two sanctimonious broads were totally intolerable. I never got the SS love as Blake, she was a cartoon..though a fun one...(I always thought she hulked over skinny little AM that it was werid...) I do think LK worked better as a softer Blake and never understood why they didn't transition the core family from the Bauers to the Marlers...instead they went with the dreadful Coopers.

I do think that Collin's stint was the nail in the coffin for Dusay's Alex. They actually wrote her like the Alex of her intro into SF...smart, savvy, funny and could be lethal if crossed..Dusay came back and two weeks in she was throwing a chair in the police station. Though my favorite Marj scene was during the dumb drugging of Alan story and Marj turned around to kick a passed out Alan on the floor!!!

I love that the press and the industry look at "one" thing as if it was the magic ingredient and not look past it. The show had Beth and Lujack but it was a multigenerational ensemble show about 5 closely entwined families. Nobody "took" over...yes, even Reva in her hey day. Long was on fire just introducing iconic character after iconic characters. Its funny that Kobe said "Not yet" as the ratings dropped soon with the cast and focus changes.

LOL..Edith would want to play the Revaeque vixen who had each one..."Eva..yea, yea, that's what I will be! Wait till those boys get a load of all of this..I'm telling ya our love scenes seem like they are from Skina-Max!" I heard she turned down Lola Heatheron for the role..."I'm wouldn't touch that DIVA with a 10 foot pole!" And yes the sets looked great compared to poor old GL when it was circling the drain.

The opening looks like an SCTV parody...I keep thinking Edith Prickly is going to make an appearance. That dining room, who knew that Collinwood was located in Henderson.

Oh my God...you are my soul mate with your hatred or Buzzard! I agree, Deas when reigned in made some good support in later years. Deas played Buzz as kind of tired and trying to steer the young idiots of SF to not make the same mistakes he did, but then someone would have to give him a big SCENE and chewing gum and flapping his arms I would hate him all over again. I think people in the industry loved him more then the audience did.. Patrick M thought he was the greatest and loved writing for Buzz...and I think others did too. I also think Marj when Alex was written correctly and she had direction could do quite well as a different Alex. The problem is that Marj did not really have any warmth with any of the younger actors like Bev did. Alex was scary as she could be a nuturing woman and turn into the Queen of Hell in a flash without ever raising her voice. Thats damn hard to do.

Except...that death meant nothing and had no effect (well maybe Ron Raines screwed up his face to look slightly more grumpy) No one really bought Gus as a Spaulding, and when he died it was like..okay. Writers blab that stuff all the time...the actor left the show they killed him off, end of story.

I just watched that 1980s ATWT episode on You Tube which was the first appearance of Margo, and the Masked Ball, etc. The other actress was playing Lyla. I know most people like AS' Lyla..(I thought her dull as dishwater) and I liked this version, she was age appropriate for Bob, and she was a bit tougher and grittier...I thought she would have brought a good mix to the Hughes family if they had married. Anyone else like her better? The episode is hilarious with pervy Brad learing at Dee, Lisa being her typical buttinsky in Dee and John's relationship, a practical cameo for poor Nancy and Chris, David going to bribe John, Nick the [!@#$%^&*] with a very much sedate, pre KIDDO Kim, and a porny Cricket.

Betsy Von Furstenburg on a weird recast on ATWT. She was a good fill in for Fulton when she was sick, and they tapped her as a recast when Fulton left the show. BVF sounded like Fulton, but was way too of the manner born and didn't have the energy Fulton had. However, Fulton was going through such a weird phase on ATWT then (dying her hair a weird shade to get attention, playing Lisa as if she was practically retarded, stuttering all the time..) it was a relief to have someone play a more mature Lisa. I wonder if BVF would have made a good Alex recast instead of poor Marj who was terrible.

I think she was supposed to be a singer when introduced, but then she was supposed to be the youngest Reardon...(we all know Nola was) and "wilder" then Nola, which she was not. And yes, she did not seem to be from a Midwestern working class Irish family when she would get up..."Ima gonna sing you all a little ditty here.." At least she sang standards..I HATED when Lyla would get up to sing that dumb ass song of hers which was entrancing the population. Other singing that made sense.. as annoying as it was when Lisa would climb up on that piano and swing those pearls...(she always reminder me of the Madame doll) it made sense, it was her restaraunt and she was eccentric Lisa who would think people would want to hear her warbling ...and I can see in real life people actually going to a place like that and expecting the crazy owner to get up and sing...especially gay guys...(how the Mona Lisa was not a gay mecca in Oakdale.. with Lisa, the drama and constant gossip...) And I did like when they had Gilly on GL sing, as she was in a band and it was part of her gig and people werent going GAGA over her singing (like they were with Lyla on ATWT.)