Mitch

Well they should've kept the two this way going years forward. I don't mind MB's Lily during this time b/c she was at least a brat but not as preachy as she'd later become. When it comes to Holden, there are no complaints from me about him in the episodes I am watching as of late. I like him being lustful and raunch and I am questioning why Lily didn't jump his bones sooner. Especially, when he was on that bed shirtless, stroking that cat. I (personally) would've gotten rid of the cat and had some alone time with Holden. I can't believe they put shirtless Holden on the bed...petting a cat! Not too subtle there. The episode was good and really flew by..I forgot how bitchy Lucinda was and forget that Iva had balls back then. The actresses chemistry was great..I loved Lucy grabbing her (a bit of Hubbard improv?) and Iva pushing on back. Iva became such a drip later. All the fire that Marland put into the characters seemed to have been drained in a few years. Real Margo and Tom with energy...(forgot them like that Dolan and that other guy turned them into such drips.) I actually thought Holden was hotter older but I know I am in the minority.

Wow who knew Lily and Holden could be kinda sick and sexy??? In Marland's bible or outline proposal for his first few years..Lily was much bitchier and spoiled, even swinging a riding crop at Holden who then uses it on her. I don't know if its because of Byrne...(who never seemed sexy to me...) or because Marland made Lily the Mary Sue to end all Mary Sues...but they changed that. That scene reminded me of when Holden had sex (unknown to him) with Rose and thinking it was Lily said..."I didn't think you were into that???" One could only guess what "that" was....but poor Holden, stuck with misonary position Lily his married life.

I probably stopped watching the show about a year or two into Sheffer. I liked him at first...but then...I picked up watching again at the very end. Weird, no matter how bad GL was I kept watching but I just could not watch ATWT. God, how I would have loved a good old fashioned over acting Justin Deas death bed scene....it would have given me so much joy after years of that voice schreeching from my screen. But I could not have stood the funeral, as you know he would have had more attention then Bert Bauer...

Not true, Mitch. The videos of the scattering of Alan's ashes and Lewis boys fishing are available online. Definitely different locations. The Lewises were shown fishing in a brook (likely filmed in Peapack). Alan's ashes were scattered from a beach along a lake (likely Lake Mohawk in Sparta, NJ, which was the filming location for the double weddings). Brooks like the one Guiding Light used are quite common in that area of New Jersey (my late aunt lived right next to one) and are quite popular for fishing. LOL..it looked like a good old midwestern drainage ditch to me!! Speaking of Alan's ashes...why the hell would Buzz Cooper be sticking his fat head in the scene? First he takes over the Billy Van wedding with his open maw gum chewing and then Alan's funeral. Why did they not kill Buzz off..I would have gone off happy! I never saw the cornfield opening and I don't know who half those people are!!! Shows how invested in the show I was.

What was the "Corn field," opening?? Was that the boring and depressing one with the geese flying that made the show look so dull and out of date? I LOVED the toliet flushing one...I never thought of it as that until someone brought it up here. I think (besides the flushing noise) the theme was kind of classy and majestic like the old dame of the show should be. But I have to give Bunim and Company credit that they did create the best theme with the "World Keeps Turning" one. They should have just updated that one..but I still think they should have kept JFP's GL opening and just tweaked it once in a while. And P.J. they did not dump Alan's ashes off a beach ...it was a bad drainage ditch then that they used...earlier they had the Lewis boys fishing out of the damn thing! Who would have eaten the fish??? They also had that Chippendale's dancer looking guy who they unaccountedly hooked up with Mel, fighting someone in that ditch, so we could have poor Mel hose the mud off so that off course, we could get a shirtless wet shot of him. That is the kind of ditch that as kids we would play around and try to drown barbies and float toy boats and if our one of our Mom's found out she would yell, "Get away from there you know its full of people's CRAP!!!" (which wasn't true but I could never watch a scene with that damn ditch without thinking someone should have yelled that at the characters. I

I forgot Ryder was actaully "Teddy!" That would have been great to have Joyce try to come back in his life, and slowly turn him against the Hughes...all the while maybe living with Bob and Kim. I woulda loved to see Kim give Joyce a big KIDDO! Joyce "Wow, and I used to think LISA was the bitch!"

LOL..I remember watching that day...and thinking, who is that new character dusting the blinds...is she a maid? If the TPTB couldn't have been more obvious that this is a different character with the same name and she has been changed to Batten's "style." And really, I never liked Connor or the actress that much to big with but it was weird. Wasnt she messing around with the big blond muscle guy with the gay haircut then? ATWT was so weird then I can't remember.

While I hated Labine's time on GL..you could see some good ideas in there...(minus Blake as a minister...) I don't think she was fit for GL but she tried...her best work was getting rid of Carmen...(for a while) and putting Claire in as the buttinsky mom in the Danny Michelle thing. She did great bringing back Aunt Meta and Meta taking charge and writing Claire's beads...but you could tell the show wasnt invested in that. Other stuff was just stupid, like Buzz and Billy fighting over Holly..it was like..."Oh they are the same age., lets put em together.." Other stuff showed a glimmer of hope...but it just seemed like someone was changing things..(Rauchie??) like the cigar girl turned FBI agent (who I read she wanted to be Nola's kid which would have been interesting, especially since she screwed her cousin's husband...) She may have done well with ATWT as someone mentioned, the vets especially...(I think LIsa would have gotten her old spunk and sense of humor back...)

LOL..I know I am in the minority but you gotta admit McCouch is hot...though I never really watched him as Dusty, as I didn't give a rat's ass about the endless, Dusty/ Rosanna/Craig/Carly/Jack/Katie..okay I have no idea if they were in each other's stories or how long but that is all I saw when I would turn the show on...two of those characters ..(pick any two) talking, in a room alone, very brightly lit with pastel tones...talking, talking, talking. Plus, I never really liked Bloom's Dusty that much so...but I just don't know if..when they bring in these soap *stars* they don't just write new characters for them. Wasn't he murdered and then I watched a few months later and there is he was..I mean,Dusty is no James/Roger/Phillip that he was important enough for a murder story when he wasn't dead. Granted I hated Howarth...(that promo above is hilarious...I love when they tried to be hip and were anything but...) but I hated just seeing that mug on the cover of Soap Opera Digest..I do think it ridiculous that they made Paul into "Todd" ...they totally forgot the guy practically grew up at Bob and Kim's house even with all the James/Babs drama. And Rose was the only time I ever liked Byrnes.

Wait a minute...Chappel was selling her panties to her fans???? Olivia may have been the town pump but for someone who hit the Springfield lottery in doing both Josh and Phillip (don't ask me who plain old Harley did that also) going to boring Natalia had to have been the biggest let down of all. I never got how Hansis or that first guy he was paired with had any fans at all..they were just so wooden and dull and uncharismatic but You Tube went nuts with people posting compilation vids of them kissing to bad music. But yes, the problems with the shows during their last decade is that storylines were all about the *couples* and did not involve fall out from family and friends. I blame that on MADD and her ABC'ing of the P & G soaps.

LOL..now THAT'S a quote ! I thought Luke was more like his mommy Lily..."ME-ME-ME" and everyone so worried about him and every gay man falling in love with him...(maybe I am mad that he got a kiss from my high school dream Greg Nelson but that's another story..) Was he ever kidnapped? Those gay storylines were so weird, as they had gay fans just because they were gay characters..didn't matter if it didn't work or make sense...(though I could see Olivia getting it on with anything..) or the actors didn't have chemistry...I mean, are we that hard up to see ourselves on screen that we just don't give a damn?

I read an interview with the actor, during the time he was fighting/stooging for Katie (when she was fun and a bad girl) and he asked Gautman..."Henry's gay..right???" and Gautman was all "Oh NOOOO..not our Henry..." (this was back in the day it would have been big controversy...) So the actor even thought he was gay...I remember that weird scene where he and Mike and whatsherface Carly's cousin and some other woman...(Who the hell knew or cared, Mke was there...) and Henry were playing strip poker...it was just really..odd..something happened and Mike (shirtless of course) and Henry ran out of the room together giggling...it was just weird. I always thought the Mike actor played it off that he knew Henry had the hots for him and he was okay with it and thought it was funny (not in a mean way.) Henry just would have worked so much better as the town busybody pain in the ass gay guy...(hell, he could have been one of Lisa's kids she forgot about...)

A flaming gay bearish Henry i never bought him with Katie, Vienna, or Babs. But i am glad Barbara did end up with someone at the end. LOL..of course, our bitch goddess/diva ended up happy with a gay man to love her! Katie, I just got the BFF vibe and Vienna, I mean come on show! The real chemistry was between him and Mike...you could see Henry turn into mush when Mike walked in..not that I blame him. I hated Gunnar as Babs needed to save herself and not have a man do it for her. Gunnar was more of a plot point in the whole "When is a Stenbeck not a Stenbeck..." plus, international photographer/ballooner...get a real job Gunnar!

Also, rumor has it that Jane was not beloved by the cast....JVD did not want to work with her anymore, and the rest of them thought she was just a biotch.. Marland wanted her to go through therapy...can you imagine, it would be like the Iva Snyder therapy sessions...AGGGHHHH.

They quickly dumped that story...the audience hated it, and as if we needed MORE Dee/James/Babs/Gunnar on the show while everyone else (besides Tom, Margo, John and Steve Betsy) sat around. Plus the accents and costumes were terrible! But it did lead into one of my faves (of the really stupid Dobsons stories) of James gaslighting Babs. I did hate Gunnar and his over bite.

LOL..I think that Tom is hot...Natalie would have been a great character to bring back by Marland...instead of boring Taylor the plain vixen going after him...too bad that the Dobson's screwed her up with that recast.

I always thought Jed Allan was the perfect recast Mike. I don't blame them not wanting Stewart back and I could have cared less, after dissing Bev Alex for being too old! I think Allen could have reigned in some of Marj Alex's uh, over the top acting and eye rolling.

They needed to bring back a recast Mike to go toe to toe with Alan and Roger. When Simon left I never understood why McTrash didn't bring back a new Mike..especially since Alex was still there and that relationship would cause so much tension. Claire should have been to the Bauers what Barbara was to the Hughes, part of the family, but set off a bit and a continuing pain in the ass to all, but you couldn't cut her loose because of the family ties. Claire had the added conflict of wanting to be part of the Bauers and disdaining them at the same time. They sort of did that with Meta taking Claire under her wing and ringing her beads at the same time but not enough.

Yea, I wasn't a fan of Nadine, or really of any of the Coopers (I liked Harley first go around....during the Wheeler years and she became the "heroine," everyone was in love with BE became so shrill and sharp...it was unbearable.) Hated her death though...(they could have married her off with that trucker guy she was seeing) but have to say I wouldnt have minded if they had killed Buzz like that and dumped his body in a dumpster.

Those story linesare exactly what made me turn it off. Anyone one of them would have been good if they were the lone "dark" storyline, but all of them at once? Add to that, Marland, except for a few characters, (Lucinda, John, Lisa) made all his characters (if they were "good," ) so earnest and serious they came off as sanctimonious bores. At that time on GL the characters seemed more vibrant and real....for example Marland would never have one "good " character dislike another "good" character, but on GL you would have Vanessa and Maureen (the matriarch of the show) gossiping and being catty about Nadine, while Nadine would do the same about Van, but they were still "good" people. (though I agree JFP's gimmicky "day" stories like Ross election and the guys hang out were a bit much.) You would never see KIm and Ellen being bitchy about Connor or Lucinda. GL just had energy to it, while ATWT resembled Marland fave Iva...dowdy, serious, and a downer...and yes, I did think Marland was a good writer who saved the show from the "Dobson" era of cheesiness. I know Margo's rape is good writing but I hate rape, done in drama, especially for a character like Margo. Yes, I know strong, good, funny women get raped but I am not entertained by that.

Those years of ATWT were almost like. "Oh see how SERIOUS we are!" I missed the days of Kim's Stalker, and James back from the dead...(the first time) after that, it is as if Marland got caught up in his own reputation. A show should always be fun to watch, and fun does not have to be "dumb." GL at that time was like "Hey, look, we're a soap and we're proud of it and we care going to trot out every soap convention in the book and write the hell out of it..enjoy!" ATWT was the dour sibling while GL was the fun one....(though the days my friend were numbered.)

Yes, 1990 was the year I stopped watching ATWT on a regular basis and started again with GL, which was just getting going with its "golden years," GL was fun and bright and still had serious storylines, while ATWT was dank and depressing and incestuous and just unpleasant. I know Marland was a good writer but he needed someone to pull him in there. I mean, really, did we need Mack (who I hated ...he always looked like he stank like ciggies and was dirty to me) have Alzheimers? What were you going to do with that Marland....there are some things, like Margos rape and that, that is too real and dark and I don't need to watch it to prove how "adult," and unsoap the show is.

Sorry, Lemay corrected Nixon that it was not "relevant" storylines, but "topical," I like that anyone had the nerve to correct Nixon especially with her getting on her high horse when a lot of AMC was just plain camp...(but good camp...I loved Opal and the Glamorama!"

I love how the writer disses Nixon and her endless mentions of "relevance!" that she kept doing right up until the 80 or 90s I think. ...(yes, Erica Kane facing down a bear IS relevant!" I remember Lemay sniffing that it wasn't "relevance," but "controversy" or something like that. The sad thing was, ATWT could have been brought up to date with the basic premise intact. Look how long Y & R stayed at No. 1 with the glacial pace , the pauses, and the close ups that Irna loved.

I think Melinda filled the role of someone who was "in the family," but "on the outside." (ironically a role filled by Barbara after Marland reshaped her.) I think they needed someone with an axe to grind perhaps...(not sure if she did but most illigit long lost soap kids have axes to grind...) Also, being that her mom was dead and she never knew her, gave Kim and Bob a good guilt reason to parent her. I have no idea if they actually did that or not as the clips I see of her she just seems to be there and not really at odds with anyone. Too bad they killed her off because of back stage politics between the Dee actress and Zenk. Instead of writing her out they should have had her hook up with Tom after Babs dumped him for James. Babs would be kinda jealous..especially when James true colors appeared and like his father, Tom needed a vixen to wake him up.