Mitch

I was thinking the storyline should have taken place when the ladies were in their 40s. However, it would not be a "romance" storyline..I would have a very magnetic guy to play plastic surgery Shea..and both women would be..as they say "drawn" to him. He would give both what they wanted to see....Elle a nice doctor/family man like David (he would concoct a fake family that died..)and who was working to help the poor. For Lisa it would be this big, larger then life guy who would feed her attention and ego...and he would take Chuck (still under another name) under his wing and Lisa would see this great father figure (from Hell) and kind of come to closure over Chuckies death and what might have been..(all in her head.) Lisa would not be jealous but not quite sure why she feels interested in him and the boy and why of course, he would be interested in"Poor old Ellen!" Ellen would have more screen time with Undercover Shea and Lisa would have more screen time with undercover Chuckie..both filling a new not really romantic. Best Tom and Margo..yes, HBS and Marx. Marx acted like a Hughes and HBS was strong and driven without the sharpness of Collins Margo. The T & M recasts were glum and flat to me.

I remember, as a little baby gay..having a "crush" on the big brother in the Doris Day show...and years later found our he grew up to be that hot guy in soaps and commercials..see Phillip, we were meant to be for a lifetime, but ya missed ya chance!!!! : )

Regarding the Scott storyline..Marland originally proposed it as a Chuck returns storyline, but Fulton shot it down with..."No, Nancy Hughes buried him, and whoever she buries stays dead!" I think it would have been much better to make Scott, Chuck..(I loved Breen on GL, but he was too old too play Scott...and be a wuss for his "Grandmother" and the characters was too muted...he should have been like Lisa in her prime, a combo of good and bad..but he just came off as boring.) But it would have been cool if they did it earlier around the Dobson's time, with Chuck come back with Dr. Shea still being alive..when David goes missing after the John Dixon rape trial a lonely Ellen finds solace (friends only as this is boring Elle) with a new Doctor in town, maybe someone who runs a medical clinic for the poor (so he can stay off the charts more..) and she volunteers there, with Shea charming her (to hopefully finally get that Lowell money and for revenge. Lisa is oddly put out by Ellen's new friend and can't figure it out..however, she is busy with an "orphan" teenage boy she found sleeping in the alley behind Fashions..Tom is suspicious as he thinks the kid is a scammer and Lisa is soft because he is right around how old Chucky would be had he lived...meanwhile, the kid under orders of his dad, make a play on Betsy Stewart to get some more revenge on the Stewarts and to get to her trust fund. The kid falls for her of course and then they can do the Betsy/Steve story without the flaring nostrils and yelling of FR, which would make years of story..with Kim/Nick butting heads with Lisa, and Lisa butting heads with the rest of the town protecting her wayward kid.

Interesting...I actually though the writing was better and made mores sense then anything you see today..though the long pauses...Claire is a dimbulb. "There are very few questions which can be answered yes or no.." I wanted her to scream..."Okay, here is one, did you or did you not screw that blonde ho-bag Lisa!" "Well, Nancy Hughes introduced us.." Damn, dragging Nancy into your sleazy affair, you ARE a villain Dr. Shea. Wow, weekends in New York, her apartment building , hotels in various cities..damn Lisa, you WERE a slut! And I can see why housewives across America both hated and admired you!!! "Wow, an affair in a hotel in New York sure beats making meatloaf!"

The best description of poor JER.

Wow..I never found ATWT "warm" by any means...but I still loved it. I think ATWT and GL were really led by their matriarchs...Nancy, cold, controlling would brook no compromise, never raised her voice but was disapproving (Marland changed that a bit with Nancy being more Grandma typical but she was never one to go to for a hug..) and Bert, former "desperate housewife" matured into a loving, warm, hugging woman who could lay your ass out when it was needed. All family fun and love on ATWT was polite, ordered and not too "huggy" and GL was more "Bauer BBQ" loud and yes, sloppy sometimes. That is why I think Marland's style perfectly matched ATWT and Long's style matched GL. I do wish Marland would have kept Nancy's dominate ways...she could have been the Dowager Countess of ATWT, a strict woman with a good heart underneath it all.

Pence looks great and I forgot what a knockout she was in the 80s. I can't believe they didnt use her more as a second tier supporting character... What a weird year 85 was it was the start of a bad change for GL...Katie, Nola, Quint Bea, Tony Annabelle Josh all written out (some actors left by choice, others didnt) .recasts for Ed and Phillip and eventually Mo..Charita's death..too much change too fast...bad time.

The show increased it viewers by miilions during the Masked Ball, leading up the No. 1 in the summer, GL was on fire at this time.

God.. I HATED Duncan...you would think he would be a breathe of fresh campy air in Marland's sea of earnest characters but he just didn't work..he has the money to transport a castle, brick by brick to Oakdale...(and why would he bother) and a ghost comes along with it? I love gothic and though the secret passages and monks ("Hello BARBARA!) were fun but just say Duncan bought an old house in Oakdale and leave it at that... But then Marland tried to saddle him with a " relevant" storyline with boring Jess, and the stupid castle became the "Earl Mitchell Home for Easily Bringing some Ethnic Characters to the Show Without Committing to It" and it just didnt work. The bright spot was indeed Lilith, but she would have worked better on GL which knew how to incorporate camp, I just love me a woman lounging on a chaise and cackling about her evil deads...I love that she shipped corpses home in boxes...(Oakdale UPS must have reeked) I just wish they gave her a Tiger for a pet or something. If they had kept Shannon fun and had her and Duncan go on adventures and bring the light romantic comedy to Marland's morose Oakdale it would have worked better.

PAS did make the worst mobster..which is odd, as he started out being the "normal" Santos in medical school who resisted the world of his family and then suddenly he is this big tough mobster which was laughable..even for a soap. I think if they kept him as the "outsider" in his family who saw Chele as his lifeline and she saw him for being a "sensitive soul" it would not have caused so many people to hate the silly mob..but MADD had to copy GH. Anyway, I would say that I am embarrassed to admit that I sometimes found PAS sexy in the role, totally not my type, but there you have it. And now seeing his house and yard I would have to say I would find him even more so now..though he has a taste for artsy younger guys who dress...."artsy" so it would be no go...wonder if he would be interested in a slightly older slob???? Trolling his Instagram feed..there is a picture of him and a woman and some woman posts..."Why her and not your wife..Nancy who play Michele Bauer Santos?" Its nice to know the Manny's are still alive and well and insane..and I am sure PAS is very glad to be away from them... Isnt the guy who was the second AM on GL gay?

The attempted child murderer was Edmund, and while I like DAM, that act alone makes him a short term character. I agree about Marj, and I hate to say it as I love her...but as I said before, I would have her come on as H.B.'s wife, or better yet, Henrys (he did have a showgirl girlfriend) and just be a pain in the lives of the Spauldings and Lewises. That would let her do comedy and her pitbull going after someone thing.

Yea, Springfield was not a place for an attempted child killer. I would have much rather had Annie vs. Alex as she tried to be the Spaulding Queen. While Alan and Alex always had a quasi..incestuous vibe going (as there was not other match for them but each other..) Marj Alex always looked like a shrill shrew overly obsessed with her brother's love life and RR's Alan just acted like an annoyed husband with a mistress. ..but I like Marj's scenes with fakeAnnie in the attic and it would have been fun if they wrote it that Alex was protecting her family and company from a psycho worming into their lives. And a Reva/Alex uneasy alliance would be fun with an Amanda/Annie uneasy alliance against Alex. But MADD was so addicted to formula if it worked once she would beat the dead horse until no one cared anymore.

As someone upthread posted...San Cristobel and GL at the time seemed so tacky and outdated...it was like a really bad parody of an ABC soap during the 80s..I can't believe that anyone thought that this was going to really appeal to a new generation of viewers. I would have much rather Reva washed up on a fictional Florida Key with secluded Gothic family ..Reva would have part of her memories but not really not understand them and think she was fleeing something bad so Richard is hiding her, ( they would have had to see the news that a big, loud, blond woman went nuts and drove her care off a bridge...) As for Eddie, DAM played him as such a queen sometimes....(and I have to admit, a sexy one at that...) I can't believe they didn't make him bi. I remember a scene of Carmen breaking into his condo to get the goods on Eddie, and opening up a cabinet of videos as she says, "Well, Edmund, lets just see what you like to watch," (even Carmen thought he was a queen) and I thought it was the start of the revelation that Eddie would do just about anything..but alas no.

God no!!! She is so over the top she would make Marj look understated. Plus, Alex should look more waspy. I personally love Marj and I think with the correct writing and a LOT of direction she could have done it. She would have never been Bev...but she was capable as grittier Alex, and as I mentioned, one of my fave Alex scenes is her face off with FauxAnnie in the attic...." Ya got a BARK on ya, don't ya honey, but I have dealt with far WORSE then YOU!" WIth more material like that Marj would have been great. BevAlex was drawing room and MarjAlex was more of an eccentric rich lady out with her dogs and horses. I wish they had just let Alex go and have Marj be a new character but just as tough. I think it was TPTB vision of Alex that sucked..she became an ineffectual shrieking harpy. Again, Marj would have been great as a major stockholder in Spaulding who was rich as hell and racing horses drinking bourbon and breeding dogs and giving Alan hell ever step of the way. Didn't Henry date a showgirl for a while. (I know, suspension of belief that it was a show..girl..) He could have married her and left all his stock..fighting Alan, embarassing Vanessa, hanging out with Nola and Reva..

LOL..I love EF..and I do think that she was in on the joke... or she really WAS Lisa...."Well next thing you know...they hit her with a TRUCK!"Just the way she said that makes me laugh. About killing Lisa..I think sometimes Eileen likes to make a good story...but who knows, maybe she was right..but it was always boring Whit who looked like he was going to get killed, I can't believe that they would have killed Lisa even with BVF wanting to leave, I could see them killing Whit and then sending a grieving Lisa off until EF came back..or maybe they did tell her that to get her back on the show. The suspects were lined up months in advance with Lucinda, Steve, Jay, etc. There would have been no suspects if they killed Lisa off. I would love to get Fulton, Zimmer, Hubbard, and some other vets from the PG soaps together and just pour the wine to hear the stories.

Yea, I am thinking dark haired, exotic young latin looking guy...someone some acting chops and who could challenge Zimmer, but not in the loud way TP did, but more subtle. I did like TP at first, he was one of the first "bad boys" on soaps who looked both physically threatening and sexual. (sorry Jessie, you were a fail) But we all know he jumped into over the top land and the critical acclaim must have kept the GL directors from reigning him in. I think outside of Zimmer's orbit he would have been great, and I think maybe as Peter...(imagine Van dealing with TP/Peter..."I should have never let NOLA get her hands on him all these years!" ) I think Alex would have been a good character to point out that Reva put the zest in quasi incest...Marj was a fail as Alex but she never let Zimmer step over her lines and gave as good as she got in scenes like this.

I would have watched the hell out of that and Zimmer would have eaten that up with a spoon (a younger man in bed with Reva..) What a savy head writer you would make..doing a good storyline AND feeding Kimmer's ego!! I don't know if I would want Sonni after Jarsh again..too Annie Dutton..I think a fully inegrated Sonni, not good or bad, but savy and smart coming in to try to stop her kid late in the game...(would YOU want Reva for a daughter in law...) Have Cassie be the typical selfrighteous prig about it, saying Reva is breaking the family apart, leading to a natural gulf between them,,maybe then do the Cassie-Josh thing....

True..as a white viewer I honestly never thought about it. I have thought why all black characters had to fall in love with another black character..as soon as you saw an unrelated male and female black character you were like "Oh, they are going to get together." I know on GL I always thought Gilly and AM would have made a great couple...she was always working against and sometimes with, the Spauldings and she was strong and age appropriate but GL went with a silly blondish girl with a squeeky voice who was always being victimized..boring. I always liked Heather on ATWT and she was totally integrated with the Hughes and the Stewarts and it made no sense to get rid of her and bring Jessica to replace her as they were two totally different "characters"...Heather was warm and creative and more family focused (for a while she had grandmother) and Jess was colder and business minded, and kind of lone wolf at first...they didnt fit the same spot! But I never liked Jess that much, she was one cold fish... But I think that goes to having more writers from different backgrounds in a writing room.

God I love Bob's Thanksgiving speeches and I love the Hughes kitchen, why they would get rid of the set shows how stupid they were. I want a kitchen that HUGE...No..Snyders. I don't give a crap about your Hubbard squash and your dull kitchen, I want to hob nob with the idle upper middle class and gossip with Lisa behind everyone's back. A couple of things...Casey's family is annoying as hell but only ATWT and Marland would have gone to the trouble of casting them... Lyla has basically the same living room set she had when she first came to Oakdale with Cricket..I love the continuity and that the soaps had the budget to keep sets around that long. I love Seth and Sabrina slinking in like they were late to mass and Father Bob called them out. I also loved the defiant slouch Sabrina had against the refrigerator. Moore could have played the hell out of a defiant outsider Hughes instead of the dull one we got. How many times did someone say, "Investigating the Stenbeck case" over 30 years. I loved how so many people were on a set and "moving" around instead of the two to three people soaps show standing in place now. Also..HATED Lyla and Casey, not because they were super couple but yes, as dull as watching paint dry.

I remember that at the time, TPTB told them to "Make GL..GL again" for the anniversary. I think Taggert really went to town bringing back Ed, Alex, and having Eddie be pissed off at the Bauers...and I don't think the heart transplant story line was ironic, I think Taggert was saying, "Were putting the heart of GL back where it belongs..." Too bad that great year went to [!@#$%^&*] and its all because of MADD as usual. Josh having a kid would be great and I would have ignored Jonathon..because her missing years and San Crud were all really stupid and totally took the earthy character of Reva and made her..something else. Josh having a hellion from Soni....(when she fell of the cliff she was preggers, left the baby at the convent as she didn't know it it was Josh or Will's ) and her really giving Reva hell. I know the focus was always to give Zimmer the scenes but she was best when she pulled it in and seeing Josh have a kid that had "nothing to do with her" for once, and the kid was the offspring of her old enemy could have given Zimmer good stuff to chew on. The male hellion would have been Peter Reardon to take Jonathon's place.

Yea, I found the Reva/Cassie relationship as annoying as hell, but then, I HATED Cassie and wasn't to fond of PostResurrection Reva either. Besides that I think the main thing was the Roxie wasn't as shrill as Reva, who became self-righteous in her old age by the time Cassie came along, and Cassie owned the title of the self entitled cheerleader who could be sweet as pie until she didn't get her way. The two of them together were too much. ( I loved when they brought Vanessa back for the anniversary and Cassie was glaring at her and Van strutted by with her old elegant "Couldnt be concerned with the trash"way. ) I think that Roxie acted like a scrappy young woman with not the greatest self esteem, and Wright never came off as the down on her heels former stripper. I never understood why they made Cassie a heroine..she would have been so much better as a trashy social climber who found herself in the lap of luxury being related to the Lewises. Wrights natural shrillness would have worked if they just didn't act like she floated on a cloud all the time, even Reva would get a kick in the ass from the other characters but no one said a word to or about Cassie. Though, I think those bar afternoons Wright got with E & B helped them see Cassie in a certain way. I do think that they could have turned her with the mercy killing of Richard, where she becomes estranged from Reva and the Lewises and goes dark. I would imagine Wright would have liked the challenge.

I remember that..it was great! You immediately knew that new writers were involved (in much the same way of Marland's first week of ATWT) but not only that, you knew it was Pam Long. She and Marland had distinct writing styles that you just knew it was "them". I remember someone writing in a soap mag at the time that GL viewers knew who "Pam Long" was but fans of other soaps had no clue who the headwriters were or cared. Unfortunatley other writers just kept shoving Reva into a red dress to show she was "wild" so much so that Zimmer said, "Every time I see that damn red dress I know I am going to have to act like an ass!"

I think the Kyle actor chose to leave? Anyway, why phase out the Reardons when they had so much life left to them?? I would have had Quint die to let Nola have a new love, and Tony and Annabelle would be a new branch of the family (though they may have chosen to leave?) I just don't get WHY the abrupt shift when the show hit number one Summer of 84 and then in the fall it all went to [!@#$%^&*]. Miss Sally was not a important character and Im glad she was gone for good. However, her death was a huge plot point as she had the info that Josh was Marah's real father (Alan had it changed to that he could have a crack at Reva and she had his protection from Kyle) and during a heated exchange with Alex, she died. The plot was good (Alan hiding the truth, Reva needing his proection from Kyle who is finally shown to be a total assh*le, and Alex protecting Alan from his own crimes...) though a bit odd for Long to write as Alex did nothing to help Sally and then Alan had a gleam in his eye asking if Alex killed Sarah. A big send off to a rather pointless character. You forgot the Camp storyline had a "lake monster" (really a bad scooby doo villain trying to scare people away from Andoran jewels) and was had an plot line where Billy was stranded with Roxie on an "island" ...so they were going to go there but luckily the writers got fired. Though the highlight of the summer was Reva in a bathing suit snorkling and Zimmer was damn near at her peak then and looked great!

When first brought on during Long's initial run, I think Warren was supposed to be a more "John Dixon" character butting heads with the respectable pillar families, in this case when he was brought on it was as antogonist to the Bauers (at that time Ed and Hillary were at Cedars, and Mo was the administrator.) I think he actually had a back story that he was in Med school with Ed??? But with the change of focus in Fall of 85 towards "big" storylines and Reva and the Lewises, he drifted into the Spauldings and since he was not a convincing straight guy, was Alex's lachey. 1986 really started that fall in 85 where there was an abrupt change in focus and the show became something entirely different. Mike was written out, Hilary was killed, Ed was recast, Mo became a whiner, the Reardons were obscured...(Nola of all people did not get involved with the cabin mystery) The Four Musketers who just entered college the year before were thrown into adult jobs with Rick graduating med school overnight and Phillip as an exec. Mindy went nuts chasing after Kyle who she shot...and of course, Charita Bauer died so there was no Bert to keep the show grounded.

God, how I hated Jessie and Simon. Interesting thing was that India was going to be Beth' cousin, but when MKA auditioned for it Long wisely knew she couldn't loose her but that India would work best as an upper class (though down on her heels ) character. I wonder if Roxie was created to fill the rough edged social climber position Long was working towards. Simon didn't work as a Brandon's illegit kid..it was stupid and made Alex look like a fool. The big problem was that at that time all the families were in their own little orbits the Spauldings had a storyline, that didnt crossover into the Lewis..(Reva) storyline and the Bauers had their own storyline...etc. Another illigit Spaulding just put them more in their little world. I thought it would have been interesting if Simon (played by someone else..) was a Reardon but more of a male social climber like Nola was. He and India could have hooked up and she and he could have played Alex...(the old, you remind me of Lujack so much...) He could have charmed Alex...(not in the way they had MarjAlex perving on that Chippendales dancer looking character) etc. That would have brought the Bauers/Reardons into Spaulding territory and made the canvas seems bigger. I never bought Reva and Kyle I wasnt a big fan of the actor and thought Kyle was an [!@#$%^&*]. Big mistake was making Kyle, Billys brother, again making the canvas so small. He should have been a guy who was the head of a company that Spaulding took over and he was still president, bringing him into the Spaulding fold but having him be at odds with both that family and the Lewises.