Mitch

Regarding Chelsea and Johnny Fake Bauer....Good God..where was Ray Rooney when you needed her!!! What was up with Weber...why was he doing a bit part and why was he acting like it was a bad skit?? That promo ....Raines acting...what...the....hell....and again, I love Marj..but it was not fair to her to have to try and match Bev. They should have written Alex off and brought in Marj as an ex "show girl"(soaps love them) who married H.B. (I would have killed him off before this...) and through him got a TON of Spaulding stock and was a perpetual thorn in the side of EVERYONE particularly Alan and Reva.

Great pic!!! While they don't have the ATWT vets aging genes...Grant/RN looked great, and PS always looks the same age, 30 or 60, and Hammer looks the same also. MOL looks good with the grey (they should have let him go like that instead of that black ink they put in his hair) and JVD just always looks like a nice guy. I don' t know who the baldies are but most likely behind the scenes? LOL..I hated the Santos but I never minded the Danny actor...despite his..petite frame he never came off as super silly when he acted tough...(I always thought Underwear Model Tony was more ridiculous...) its just too bad they made Danny and Carmen cartoon mobsters..they would have been so good as foils to the law and order suburban Bauers..and if I did write a gay storyline for Danny it would not involve any character played by Brad Cole....UGGGH!

LOL..the frame that comes up on that shows Danny as the Big Spoon and Richie as the Little Spoon. Now THAT would have been a more realistic storyline!

LOL....What da hell???? No one took a look at this and at any point, said..this is really stupid!!! I do love that the tint on this is orange, to match SC's skin tone! Agree, Mike gets much, much, hotter as the years go by, though no less gay, (though in more quiet, sexier way.)

I thought Beth and Matt were hot but the Mattessa FREAKS had a fit (of course, E & B never knew how to write a traingle unless there was a bad person so Beth had to be a bitch to Van, I never liked Van and Matt together and thought she would have quickly gotten bored by his tight, uh body and wanted to move on with someone who challenged her more. It would be much better if Van cooled her feelings for Matt, he was drawn to Beth, and she him..but they fought there feelings as Van also felt quilty that her feelings for Matt have changed...and everyone in SF thought of them as the golden couple..etc. Kyle coulda/shoulda taken over as the Big Bad once Alan was retired....Alan dies (or actually goes to prison again..) and Phillip takes over. Kyle aborbs Lewis..and targets Spaulding..so Kyle, the Spauldings and Josh/Reva are all dukeing it out.. Instead of the fairy prince crap I would have had Kyle unhappily married to social climbing Olivia...who sets her sights on Phillip, while Kyle falls in love with Cassie, and Reva battles her jealousy AND we find out Marah is really Kyle's kid AND Reva knew several years ago the truth but decided to bury it. I remember Zimmer, who got her back up when they brought Cassie on..saying they were turning her into Bert Bauer as she had a line like "Now Cassie...really tsk, tsk." While Zimmer and Newman had their huge egos...and TPTB fed into them...they also had a point. Soaps "used" to be about the generations and Grandpa Hughes, Nancy Hughes, Bert, etc were not front burner but vital parts of the show, and all the changed. As soon as characters were back burnerd they were in danger of being cut, especially people seen as old and boring. Look at Maureen. So I don' t blame them as much as that is how the "industry" worked.

I don't know, Matt and Reva had a real quick scene in the Bauer Kitchen during a BBQ..she was drying off her tank top after a water balloon contest...(lol) and Matt walks in with a innuendo and it was kind of natural and sexy for a brief moment. I never understood why they didn't bring Kyle back to go after Reva and also take over for Alan who had run his course right after the Annie thing. I think the problem was really with the actors who, if they werent in a front burning storyline for two minutes would BOTH bitch to the soap press. Its too bad too as RN had great dad chemistry with the younger actors,,(my fave imaginary storyline would be that Shayne was a flaming no apologies man chaser and like ATWT, it was Josh that accepted it but not Reva until she became the most obnoxious PFLAG mom on earth.) Not that much for a soap character... she was went from being a nurse aid to a photographer during her first run..then she worked in the Diner when she was with Buzzard, she was on the Lewis board and then she was a talk show host..so not that much really.

If they wanted to get rid of Steve, and believe me, Runyon's ego did him in...they should have just had Steve sacrifice his life to save Betsy. After a mourning period she could move on, or yes, write them off together. I HATED the Rod storyline, I really can't believe Marland was so tone deaf as to make a rapist a "hero" and have him go under the name..."Rod." Freaky [!@#$%^&*] all around and was really the time that Marland himself was wearing out as a writer and became more morbidly self indulgent...(Oakdale just got more depressing the more he stayed on.) I agree also that Marland, who everyone raves about his respect for history...sacrificed Betsy and Kim's relationship for Frannie and Kim....when you coulda had both.

I think at that time viewers, like myself, were just happy to see an "old" face after JFP decimated the show, with killing Mo, moving the focus on the Coopers, and with Buzz eating the show alive. Unfortunately McLabby screwed us all over by paring with Reva with Buzz...( I think Logan called it "Two dogs trying to chew the same bone.") and having Reva actually beg that little troll for sex!..I would take the clone anyday over that. Reva could have made a great addition to GL if she had stayed part of the ensemble...(I actually think McTavish did better with that then any other writer) and if they could have just put Jeva to rest once and for all....) I would have had them kind of like Bob and Lisa, always in each others lives, maybe occassionally hitting the sack in between others. I actually think Reva and Matt would have been kind of hot...(and send both the Jeva nuts and the Mattessa nuts in a head spin..)

They look great, even O'leary looks kind of normal there. Regrading Sniveling Lily..there are just some characters you hate, and there are some characters you love to hate, and there are some characters that you still have a sentimental attachment too through that hate. Lily was one of those especially when they let people dis her finally, (I actually liked it when Rose didn't like her.) When they recast her it was just pure boredom hate. No one could be as annoying as MB as Lily. I don't understand the diss on MH's looks. Sure he is not soap opera..he looks like a normal cute guy who could keep you warm all through the winter. I was working out at the gym and they had GH on one of the TV"S and I just thought..."There is no one who looks "Real" on that show anymore...and all the middle aged people..as there are no old people anymore...they all had horrible plastic surgery...that guy with the big nostrils...looked almost as terrifying as poor Jackie Zeman! Regrading Lemay and Marland...Marland gave an interview about his time working on AW and the execs proposed a murder mystery. Lemay in his queeny snobby outrage got up and said..."WE don't do murder mysteries...." and walked off to the elevator making his staff follow. Marland said he wanted to run back and say..."I DO murder mysteries...I DO!"

I heard that also, but what I meant was..why did TPTB keep him around??? He was "old," not particularly attractive (disclaimer I thought his Tom Hughes was hot..) and his character was annoying as hell, and he was a big pout (he told a story about the director telling him to "tone it down," and he just really read the lines after that...) PS was "My" Ed but he was so cold...Hulswit was the Ed when I was a kid and "my Moms" Ed and he was much closer to Charita Bauer interpretation of Bert...warm, a bit chubby, normal, a calmness where you would see why people would look up to them but a back bone when it was needed. He also looked more like he could have been O'leary's dad...(at his best O'leary had the same thing that Charita and Hulwist brought to their roles, but he insisted on his "comedy" and his mugging, when Rick should have taken over from Bert as being the go to Bauer.) Van Fleet always came off as too weak. Also, he came on during a HUGE change (when I think the show hit bottom...until Peapack came..) with Charitas's death, the decimation of the Bauers..(Hillary killed off, Mike written off..) the obscuration of the Reardons, the rise of the Lewis as the 'core" family and Reva ate the show alive. He might have worked at another time but GL just became a totally different show overnight and it did not work at all. It was just typical Rauch and E & B bullshitting that they were going to focus on the core with all the complaints. They were boasting they were going to show flashbacks of him and Bert which would impact the story but never did. They actually had a good story built in there with him...Ed was the doctor for Jesses' Mom and his dad blamed Ed for killing her (hence getting Mo's heart to Jesse...) It was a good "GL" story with the dad coming between Chele and Jesse and the economic disparity. But it wasnt "cartoony" enough for them so they got bored. I always wanted Nola to get involved with Jesse's dad as she buttinskied her way into trying to help Chele, and have her caught in between Ed (in a sisterly way) and the dad too, and if they gave Jess a bad girl social climbing sister to go after Bill Lewis, so there would be Jesse/Chele/Bill/Bad Girl thing going. With the adults having problems, the kids having problems, and it all tied together, with Aunt Meta drinking a bourbon and handing out sassy advice, it would have been good. The most frustrating part of Rauch and E & B tenure was the "What coulda.shoulda been" they demonstrated they had some good ideas and could actually write some interesting stuff. And then it would go back to being a shallow cartoon.

I hated her by the end but by that time she was so tied to Buzz that I was ready to get rid of her. I did think she was funny when she was mixing it up with the rest of SF....(Frank of all characters had one of my favorite lines..."Nadine's idea of a family meal was letting us stay up late to watch Johnny Carson and eat Fried Chicken out of the bucket!") I think they didn't know what to do with her with Nola on the scene..but the two of them would be wacky Lucy and Ethel fun or competing with each other for a man (in a comedic triangle...) I don't like the violent way she was killed..that was deserved for Buzzard..(God I would have loved to have Brent say. ..."Have some diner food Buzzard..as he threw his body in a dumpster.) Speaking of which I know Deas was a FOJ but how in God's name did he hang on all those years after she was gone? Pics of MADD in a Chinese brothel? Through McLaiby to Rauchie on down to Peapack, he clung on and was given material.

I didnt think about Long and Lucinda! While Lucinda was polar opposite of Bev/Alex( one was quiet, but could cut you to pieces with a stare..the other was flamboyant and could cut you to pieces with her zingers) they both were powerful, conflicted women who were not the cartoon soap opera rich bitch they turned MarjAlex into.

I disagree, I think Long was a terrible fit for both SB and OLTL as neither one of them were "family" shows per se.. the first two years of her GL term were great as the Bauers were the center with the other families having their turn..it wasn,t until TPTB interfered that it came apart...and her second tenure on GL she got to straighten some of that out. I think she would have respected the Hughes and would have been really good with Nancy (I thought her writing of Bert was great..matriarch of SF but human and fallible too.) I just would fear she would bring Zimmer ...(imagine Zimmer as a Diana McColl recast....her and Fulton together on screen....either great or diva disaster....) Co head writing with Curlee would have been great...( I always loved Curlees quote that a poster here uses but she also ammended for soaps in general..."You can scare the hell out of the viewer, throw anything you want at them, as long as they can run out of that dark backyard, run up the porch steps and bang through the screen door and Nancy Hughes is in the kitchen baking cookies."

Some of his stuff was good and natural...like Nancy asking where the serving spoon was and I liked that people actually used their kitchens and made dinner (in today's soaps its as if no one does anything "normal") and worried about who was going to watch their kids...(in between kidnappings and murder trials..) but when it came down to people having a conversation that moved plot along it was stiff and unnatural and contrary to what someone posted above...everyone sounded the same...like they just stepped out of a touchy feeling group therapy session ("honesty..feelings) GL at the time ..while their plots were sloppier, made their characters sound like real people talking..and sometimes, even the "good" people didn't like other "good" people and made bitchy gossip about them...(Marland's characters were too earnest to do that...)

He split them apart for the same reason I feel he split John and Lucinda up..they were too sarcastic, bantering and fun to be in his wheelhouse. Everyone had to be morose, dour and earnest. I mean, he split up John and Lucinda for John and Emma????? Kirk became Marland' typical bland "hero" who was ever so sorry he was good in business and placed that above...."honesty." I HATED Ellie just because the writers had to work overtime to tell us how "funny" she was, but they failed to ever show us she actually was?? Poor Iva, marrying that Jason guy, leave it to Iva to finally find a guy to marry her and he was a flaming queen!

Iva started out strong, kind of like how Marland wrote the original Maureen with Dolan, smart, tough, oldest daughter from a big family who had some trouble in the "big city" (obviously Iva had more trouble then Mo did, who just GASP...lived with a man!) She was able to match Lucinda...etc. Then as years went by she became a depressed, depressing dormat...who was just obsessed with Lily. When she came back to intro Rose as Lily's twin I thought it was so weird that they never had any other scenes...and Lily never had scenes or reallly mentioned Iva ever.

Good idea about Block as Craig...I was never interested in the Montgomery family besides Margo, and after Dolan was cast I couldn't care less about her. Rick would have been a good antagonist within the Hughes family, much as Babs was, and really what Sabrina should have been. Bob, the patriarch of Oakdale, ironically was in Rick's eyes a "failed father" etc. Bryce was a better actor but sometimes that does not count..Craig, I felt was always a wimpy character..when he was evil it was all about Betsy, when he was good it was all about Sierra (God I hated them) Iva (really Craig...dull, plain Iva???) and I lost count of who else he was quivering his puckered lips over and having tears well in his eyes. That is why Block never worked as Craig..he was so dismissive of women..I felt a good storyline was for him to be gay or bi..and Craig was nothing if not obsessed with the latest woman in his life. But I think I am the wrong audience..maybe women love the weak sensitive bad boy?

I thought Block was hot...(I remember the scene where he and Carly were sitting in a car and she had to duck down when a car drove by and he said, "Well, Carly, while your down there..." Marland was in heaven, clutching his pearls on that one! I never like Bryce that well. I know he is a better actor but thought his Craig was always kind of a wuss. He was a wimp when he was evil and married to Betsy and he REALLY was a wuss when Marland took over (even his "romance" with Lucinda was about her being the dominant person...) So in that respect I didn't think Block was right for the role...cause deep down, good or bad, Craig was always a wimp who turned his life around for the woman in his life. So yes, I could see him more as a Rick Ryan or my favorite would have been Marland's original idea, to have what became Scott Eldridge to be Lisa's son by Michael Shea..they should have saved the dumb Sabrina plot for having John and Rick Ryan switch babies to help a not really dead Shea get revenge on Lisa.

LOL..I would have loved that...she, Lisa, and Chelsea Reardon all getting that treatment (as soon as I would see Lisa crawling up on that damn piano I prayed for James to set off a bomb in the Mona Lisa... God I HATED Lyla's signing. and when they actually had the nerve to act like her lite pop crap song was a "hit" and the kids on the show were actually liking it...UGGGH. But I think Lyla was useless after her original storyline of dating Bob and secretly having John's baby.

I seriously think that Frankie D was paying THEM to be on the show. He was not talented, he was no longer the hottie, his character was boring, etc. Deas, I think his "reputation" as an "actor" in the goofy soap industry kept him around. I always thought Clarissa should be fat and plain and a book worm and resentful of her sex pot Mom and more friends with Grandma Holly. About Mrs. Lemay, you were expecting E & B and then later Kreizman to remember she was preggers? Hell, Kriezman and Wheeler sent her back in the same time machine that Amanda Spauldiing took to de age her to be a teenager...(presumably so BE could still be the "young" romantic heroine.)

This was the first time I watched that scene of Babs jumping out the window...there was so much wrong with it that the jump was actually the logical conclusion of the scene. That came off as if it was a comical dream Babs had of what would happen or a skit on how stupid soaps can be. First of all, you can tell that the 80s and even 90s were long gone. Marland would write, and they would have a budget for...having tons of characters in that courtroom...(Bob, Kim and Lisa looking concerned, etc, Margo rolling her eyes...) and why is everyone orangeish? Second, a judge would never allow that in his courtroom, third, Barbara may have been a bitch somtimes..and I can buy her jumping into pschosis...but a dumb bitch/psycho? Babs was anything but dumb, and that whole speech was something an idiot would do. Then the overacting from Zenk and the ultimately..why did she jump out the window..was she Wonder Woman all of a sudden and would not be hurt by the glass and can run super fast away...instead of a middle aged woman who was never an athlete. Fat Ass Hogie is to blame but there is a lot of blame to go around, from MADD to Gautman to the directors, to the other writers to even the actors. No one said, "This [!@#$%^&*] is stupid and makes no sense!" !!!

But there it is, why was Blake (and Ross) off contract but they would keep Frank and Buzz? Switch that off and have your longest running vet and his wife head up a new young family. I think Holly, at this point worked best on recurring, coming in and out of stories as needed. Just say she is a globe hopping journalist writing a book (and maybe looking for Roger) and she comes into the story when needed. Don't remind me of Gus. Why they didn't fix that paternity problem I will never know..that manscara wearing twit was in no way a Spaulding...I loved when he died everyone was like..."Oh...hey what's for lunch???" The mental unraveling of Phillip and his "death" could have been a great story (and gotten GA an emmy) if it wasnt written so crappy. It touched everyone on the canvas and could have realigned and fixed a lot of things..(i.e during the trial Gus "real" paternity came out, the "real" reason Alex was involved in the drug ring..brought Beth back to being herself,..etc.) and they revealed he was alive in the summer...with GA back in the role.

I will never figure out who Deas was balling to keep that job! God (and this is sick stuff I know) I would love to have had Buzz die in that car crash and give him a chance to do his usual over acting in his death scenes at the hospital...sputtering, arms waving, spitting, snot flying out of his nose..and have Rick or Ed say...."The patient would pull through if he would just stay still, but he wont..." and then in the middle of a massive arms flaying like windmills attack, he bites it, with his big maw wide open so he can kick it like he lived it. Actually I would have had Buzz get killed by Brent instead of Nadine...how I would love Brent to say that infamous line to him instead..."How bout some diner food Buzz??" as he throws his body in the dumpster... But yea, Rauchie and MADD got rid of her because of her sticking up for Zaz, but also, she was a bit of a diva herself, complaining if she didn't have a storyline...."There is only so much you can do in the background of the Bauer BBQ blowing up balloons." so I guess Rauch already had his hands full with Zimmer.

Damn, that Hutch or whatever his name is, was such a FLAMER!! Remember when we just automatically assumed everyone was straight..despite every indication otherwise..oh the innocent 80s and 90s! Tess comes off as his kind of annoying best gal friend then his girlfriend.

So it wasn't really Holly's fault. It was Jenna's for being a ho bag who lies. And has terrible taste in men. Damn, over hearing paternity, that happened every other week on Marland's ATWT!