Mitch

God I hated Rusty and his little pig tail in back. Anthony left the show complaining about lack of airtime, and that if he was on an ABC show, he would have gotten it, whatever that means. With all the storyline she had Reva did not need a brother and one as boring as Rusty to boot. Plus he was a cliche...."renegade cop, and I'm not going to do what the Captain tell me!" ... Im just sorry they didn't kill Rusty off in a shoot out so we could have watched Anthony try to act out his death scenes....oh if only he had been around for Brent/Marion HE could have been the one to take her out on a date and get killed in the phone booth (all the while Rick and Abby hilariously walk by not noticing anything wrong...)

Agreed...I never thought it was bad that the vets took on a supporting role in later years...Grandpa Hughes and Judge Lowell werent out screwin' around either. It just got to the point with some of the vets that they werent included when they should have been to add "richness," to the show....i.e. Lisa being involved with Carly..etc. I always thought they did a good job of keeping Bob and Kim involved and the respected patriarch and matriarch of the town...though I still can't beleive they took away Kim's kitchen and we had to have holidays at Tom and Margo's or wherever. Look at how Guiding Light ended with Reva and Josh...they had been given storyline after storyline to stay on the frontburner and it just screwed them up..by the time the show ended they were well past the date where instead of running around finding new partners they should have settled down..it got tedious. If ATWT continued on Carly and Jack and Holden and Lily would have ended up the same...as Reva and Josh a revolving door of partners breaking them up to just end up at square one again...

I want to know what pact with Satan the ATWT vets made that they aged so damn well!!! Masters looks the same always, Hastings and Hays look similar, Fulton, Larry B....let us all in on your secret.

Bunim came in..what fall of 81 I think..after the disaster of that summer when, after the Dobsons got fired in the spring, the show went through headwriters who had no clue what the show was about, and then the writers strike, and tons of new boring characters, like Aunt Connie, and Nick's boring step daughter Sofia, and the new head of Memorial who was gasp..Asian, but had no storyline and James dealing in stolen antiquities which somehow morphed into the drug ring..and Annie a surrogate for Carol and Steve....Obviously the show was so bad they even hired the Dobsons back, and they did better with a more cartoony ATWT. I think she left in 84? Fulton should be happy as she was the one who helped made a muck of Lisa before she left, dying her hair that hideous shade of red (she admitted she did it to get attention) and making Lisa a ditzy dope (again she admitted to get attention and she was bored..) and I am sure Von Furstonberg was easier to deal with then Eileen. I still feel that Marland would have wanted the original back though.

I think that was what finally got her fired from ATWT....Didn't she blame that, but later she came out that there was drugs going on with the porn husband (I know..shocking!) It was weird she was even there, she had nothing to do and was boring...I think it was Bunim who kept her there and would comment that she loved her because of "All that hair," which is typical Bunim...(to think they kept her on contract and put poor Don McClaughlin on recurring...) Also, the clip was during Fulton's hospital stay and she said she was laying there, and watching it and saw BVF and said..."She is wearing MY dress!" which made her get better quicker...(typical Fulton) so it must have been the scenes of the gala. Too bad Lisa was such a mess when BVF took over the second time as she had nothing to play. Luckily when Fulton came back the writers fixed things. and Fulton quit acting like an airhead all the time.

I feel like they tried to address this by acting like the hotel was a hip place and an example of a hipper Oakdale (wasn't someone marveling over the upstairs rooms or resting couches or something)? I wish Kim and Bob had taken them to that "swinging" disco we saw in the 1978 episode. You can imagine the muted horror and snickering. Come on..you know that place only gets "hot," right before dinner time..(judging from the scenes of Chris just getting home from work and it is still light out and cut to...swinging couples on the dance floor!) .and then must close at 10 p.m.!

Just skimmed the episode...Dumb Dee, when Lisa of all people stops you and wants to have a chat about something, "Just as a friend," you say, "Oh, I would love to, but I am on my way to the bathroom." Brad gets creepier and creepier..was that supposed to be sexy? Young James is smoking hot...it really does suck that they didn't give him any depth later on...he became a mustache twirling villain. I like the mention of his parents who must have been figured in to have more to play later on...and God Love Wagner who could do exposition in her sleep and still make it seem natural. I love Kim's annoyance with Cricket (shades of Kim to come..."Well she doesnt LOOK tired," ) but hate Nick. They should have made Ellen against the plan to buy John off (really David, you think that would work) and then be mad at David for going ahead with it..cause some drama for them. I also love Crickets bad dance that all the Euro Trash people are into..I wish some older guy would have asked her to join he and his wife to their room later..speaking of, none of Jame's sophisticated swinger set is asking him why the Holy Hell he is living in Hooterville?

LOL...I remember watching this episode! Sad but true. I only was able to watch five minutes here but that has to be the DULLEST gala I have ever seen on a soap...there is like 10 people there. I love that they threw Nancy and Chris a bone..I can see why Wagner left. they didn't even focus on them once, it was all on the kidnapper. Instead of getting rid of Nancy and Chris they needed to get rid of the directors and writers..the dialogue was terrible and the directions was very stilted. I can see why people were saying ATWT was out of date, but typical bone headed producers it WASNT because of the vets. Barbara looks so young, and Dee is not as annoying as I remember her..she looks quite pretty here. John and Bob and Kim look almost the same as they did when the show ended. Yes, Cricket was meant to be a big character but the actress was porny and the writing just wasn't there. A few months in and she didn't have anything to do..so yes, I am sure they ump the tramp on Margo since Cricket was such a bust.However, Eric Holister was boring and despite his stardom later, the actor playing him didn't have much going..at least here. I am sorry but Velka Grey was a better Lyla, she looked like a former floozy that was rode hard and put out wet and was tough and gritty. Anne Sward was just...dull, and too young for Lyla. The rumor is that Don H wanted his wife to play Lyla so he didn't get along wtih Grey.. I don't know how much is to the rumor as they did not hire his wife to replace her and I never heard of he and Anne having problems. David's obsession with his daughter is slightly...icky. And of course, speaking of icky ...herer comes Brad Hollister to creep around the corner. I don't remember , how did they explain how he could obsess over Dee but be in love with Annie too and marry her. And NO one in town sees him leering at Dee? I think this was the Dobsons answer to the late 70s virile male but he just creeps me out. And they had Lisa charmed by him when he first came on the show! The show was really WEIRD at this time.

Yes.who else but McTrash would do that. I do have to say I did like Alex and Amanda bitching at each other..."PLEASE, get that WOMAN out of my house, there is not a drain in the mansion that hasn't been clogged by that hair!" Those were fun lines, although I remember Liz Keifer saying that she didn't like saying them. I wonder sometimes if Toby Poser was hurt by them as wasn't she biracial? I'm not sure. I thought she was great as Amanda, although I liked Kathleen too, when I went back and watched her run. By and large Amanda had so much wasted potential. I always thought she was bi-racial and would make a great Barbardos Spaulding ...(I thought the boring Vickie Rauch and E & B brought on was a boring as hell and did nothing..but no one really did anything at that time but Josh and Reva and Phillip and Harley and Cassie and Prancing Prince..) However, I am not sure if she is or not. The main problem is that sexually repressed (or frigid as they contantly said) and staid character became this over the top sex vixen with a smart mouth..so she would have worked better as another character then Amanda. ( I cant get the image of Cullen with that damn doll out of my head!)

Yes.who else but McTrash would do that. I do have to say I did like Alex and Amanda bitching at each other..."PLEASE, get that WOMAN out of my house, there is not a drain in the mansion that hasn't been clogged by that hair!"

The Amanda story was a victim of interim writers. It started with Conforti and Miller and Roger asking Vanessa why Alex always has the upper hand with Alan, and even if he is right he backs down from her. So it was a story about Alex having something over Alan's head...(though in the past Alex won as she was slicker and more on the side of "right," then Alan, and they also went back and forth on winning...) Then it came down to as Marj would say in interviews "That G**D*** bust" of Brandons with something hidden in it and then it was the birth certificate where they wrote Amanda's mother's name wrong. Amanda as Bradon's father could have been good, as that was the original intro of Amanda that she MIGHT be Brandon's daughter, but it was screwed up from the start and if it was true, Alex needed to be there to play the story out. I love Toby's Amanda as I hated the original drippy Amanda. I know it didn't make any sense as Amanda was suddenly younger with a new personality. I wish that Poser was another character, with her exotic-y looks she could have been Victoria's younger sister or something.

I HATED Holmes as Tom. Who in their right mind would go from smoking hot Marx...who was the perfect Tom...(all American, nice, sexy a solid Hughes but not uptight, ) to Holmes, who at his best was sharp and humorless and at his worst, seemed downright priggish and unpleasant. Dolan was a terrible Margo and agree, I like HBS the best...Colin was my first Margo but she was so brash and in your face sometimes it was annoying...(and no one, not even Lisa ever commented on it..) Though Colin and Deas had great chemistry.

I happened to see Margaret Colin's Facebook page as I was goofing around at lunch and she looks great but also looks like a nice Irish mom (that is a compliment.) I thought then it would have been great, if they could do it, during the last five years or so to bring Deas over from GL and bring Colin back as Margo. If PG wanted to show to survive long term it would have been a good move as Bob and Kim were not getting any younger and the show needed another tent pole Hughes couple. Dolan and whatshisface never gave out any warmth at all so they never could have done it...(HATED that guy as Tom.)

What year was this? Had to be 83 right? The Dobs are gone as it seems the whole canvas was being used at least more then when they were there and the John/Bob feud was reignited. God..that Craig/Betsy/Steve thing went on forever didn't it? I know we were supposed to think Richard was James but who was he really? Maggie stared having the boring baby obsession soaps love so much, Frank was hot and the best Andropolous?I hated Jeff and lo and behold, Lyla gets h hot boyfriend and gets to call Betsy a tramp!!!! This is the most interesting that drip ever was.

Yes, Marland's original idea was to bring Chuckie back...but when he discussed it with Fulton she said, "Oh, Nancy Hughes buried him and whomever Nancy buries stays dead!" I don't know if that was true as Fulton is a good storyteller. I don't think it would have been too farfetched...with James back from the dead every six months, etc. That would have been great if they brought him back with a returned Michael Shea (complete with plastic surgery of course) the original James Stenbeck. Much better he as an angry teen (Shea filled his head with stories about his slut of a mom) then boring Scott or John again finds he has a child and its boring Duke. Shea could have come back and worked at the Earl Mitchell goofy center and stated wooing Lisa...( he would be the total opposite of her usual, she would think he was a Doctor donating all his time to the poor so she would be giving him money to help that but of course he would be pocketing it...) The problem with Scott is that he was GL/Will on downers and Tom was being played by the bland and unpleasant whatshisface so there were no fireworks and Fulton had to work overtime to put any energy into those two.

No she was sleeping with both. Knowing TPTB they would have made it a Spaulding (just like having Beths kid turned out to be Alan..EWWWWW) but it works better as a Bauer. Having a bad Bauer would have been fun and ultimate revenge....Roger would steal Holly from Ed (as she would become more like him and I love MG when she is being the power bitch not the poor heroine) AND steal his kid too...all from beyond the grave! Then the Rick/Bad Bauer story would have wheels as they take on the Ed/Rog roles.

Correct. Natalie's return in 1981 was horrid. As Mitch states, she had zero interaction with Tom. I remember watching and thinking, "What's the point?" The same was true when the Dobsons brought in Gary Hudson as a recast of Rick Ryan. It was a nice idea, but never really went anywhere - plus, Hudson was also miscast as Rick (in my opinion). Hudson was hot though! But yea he couldn't act and did he even have scenes with Bob or Kim? I remember a stilted scene with Barbara....(who you would think would have been thrilled to find her long lost brother...) and she mentions have you talked to "Bob Hughes," yet (I always think is so weird that charcters tack on last names, as if he wouldnt know which "Bob," she was talking to.) Hudsons acting talent wasnt as big as his chest though. ATWT was just so weird back then, no one was connected so bringing back old characters was useless as the Dobs had three character groups (Ariel, John,Dee, James, Babs, Gunner) and(Steve and Betsy/Craig) and (Tom/Margo) and no one else got written for as those character rarely interacted with their own families. Zarish to give her her due, knew how to trade bitchy remarks and keep up with Fulton so she would have worked as someone other then Natalie.

I always say this when the MZ story comes up..it WAS terrible how MADD mismanaged the whole thing. However, I do agree that it would have been both hard for the viewers to see Zaz/Roger fail as it would have been to write and produce it...( patients have good days and bad days the disease progresses differently on people, how do you write for something months in advance..etc. ) Also working with a populaiton that is older, I know it is hard for people to let go even when they are physically unable to do so. The respectfull thing to do was to write Roger out for a bit (at first they did not know what was wrong with Zaz) until they found out what he was looking at. It could have been a cryptic goodbye from Roger to Holly. I would have brought him back as maybe having Holly and Blake be his leg men as he proceeds to wreck his final revenge on the Spauldings by doing a complete takeover and kicking them out. So he could have a scene with both Holly and Blake talking about the illness, this would cause problems for both Holly and Ed (during that time I would put them togther) and Blake and Ross. The twist would be that Holly would LOVE the power and Blake wouldn't ...she finds her happiness with her family which she loosed (for a time) . Holly would own part of Spaulding and constantly battle Alan and Alex...(she had good chem with Ron Raines) and after Zaz and Roger died I would proceed with the Sebastian story only this time it would have been a kid that Roger secretly adopted and schooled to be as ruthless as him.and that kid would have been Ed and Rita's kid...the ultimate revenge on Ed..a son that becomes Roger and HATES every everything Ed stands for.

I never like Barr that much, she was just too "ABC'ish," to me...but they did indeed consider her for a recast Annie Stewart right before that other ABC actress took over. The Natalie return the Dobson's did was so stupid. She was married to some greek tycoon film producer and she came to town to shoot a movie in Oakdale. She was tied to the Andropolous' as Steve stole her husband's necklace or something (I am remembering a "Green Fire," thing but have no idea if that was it...) and that is how she found out that Jay had kicked the bucket. The part was miscast...(no offense to Zarich but she was not a soap vixen..) and she didn't interact with any of her old family besides bitchy barbs with Lisa, and that was that.

She was…her marriage to Steve was the second highest rated wedding only behind Luke and Laura. Yeah but many of you longterm ATWT are debunking that on this thread. I thought the whole Stewart family was beloved as they were second to the Hughes but again this thread and recent posts say otherwise. There's no doubting that Meg Ryan was very popular as Betsy. Not immediately (she said that at a fan event the guy who played Steve asked everyone to raise their hands if she was their favorite Betsy, and pretty much no one did, as Suzanne Davidson's Betsy had been very popular with fans), but in time. Even now I've seen people talking about how they loved her. I wasn't watching at the time so my experience is mostly just clips and episodes. As for the Stewarts, I think they were important to viewers, but were marred by poor writing, lack of depth, and many, many recasts. The only Stewart kids who seemed to have something of a following were the Dans (mainly John Reilly), Ryan's Betsy (I preferred Lindsay Frost but I get the feeling many viewers always preferred Ryan) and Jacqueline Schultz's Dee (who was, IMO, very poorly written - Schultz eventually quit for that reason). And then I guess Emily, to a point. I thought John Colenback (the first adult Dan Stewart) had a pretty strong following, especially during the late 1960's/early 1970's when the Dan/Liz/Paul/Susan saga was in play. I still think it was a mistake to kill off Dan in 1979. Didn't they kill him off b/c they said they had nowhere else to go with the character? They got all they could out of him? But what do you think they should've/could've done with the character had he stayed? Good question, and it ties in to what Paul stated above. Paul is right - Colenback's Dan didn't really have the same chemistry with Hayes that Reilly did. With that said, I would have started a Bob/Kim/Dan triangle immediately after Betsy found out that Dan was her dad instead of her uncle. Bob could have been her doctor during that deafness Betsy had (I think it was deafness), and Betsy could have bonded with Bob in a fatherly way (since she would have trust issues with Dan). Bob and Kim are drawn to each other again, creating conflict between Bob and Dan. Heck, I would have brought back Susan and Emily to make things even worse for Dan's situation. If they needed to get rid of Dan, they could always have Dan leave town healthy, and perhaps bring him back later if necessary. They always kept Kim and Bob apart during this time, and I hated Dana and Nick. But, the SORAS-ing of Dan was always an issue back when Irna first did it in 1966. Its shifted the structure of the canvas quite a bit. Dan was supposed to be more of a peer to Tom Hughes, but instead was now a peer to Bob (instead of David being Bob's peer), Ellen was now a peer to Nancy, etc. Good point, the death of Dan really could have fixed that...as at that time Ellen and David had age appropriate daughters (sort of). At least they let Ellen out of her bun when David came back to town with amnesia but by that time Nancy was gone and Chris was sidelined, and they should have played heavily in that as parent figures to David and Ellen.

She was…her marriage to Steve was the second highest rated wedding only behind Luke and Laura. Yeah but many of you longterm ATWT are debunking that on this thread. I thought the whole Stewart family was beloved as they were second to the Hughes but again this thread and recent posts say otherwise. There's no doubting that Meg Ryan was very popular as Betsy. Not immediately (she said that at a fan event the guy who played Steve asked everyone to raise their hands if she was their favorite Betsy, and pretty much no one did, as Suzanne Davidson's Betsy had been very popular with fans), but in time. Even now I've seen people talking about how they loved her. I wasn't watching at the time so my experience is mostly just clips and episodes. As for the Stewarts, I think they were important to viewers, but were marred by poor writing, lack of depth, and many, many recasts. The only Stewart kids who seemed to have something of a following were the Dans (mainly John Reilly), Ryan's Betsy (I preferred Lindsay Frost but I get the feeling many viewers always preferred Ryan) and Jacqueline Schultz's Dee (who was, IMO, very poorly written - Schultz eventually quit for that reason). And then I guess Emily, to a point. I thought John Colenback (the first adult Dan Stewart) had a pretty strong following, especially during the late 1960's/early 1970's when the Dan/Liz/Paul/Susan saga was in play. I still think it was a mistake to kill off Dan in 1979. Didn't they kill him off b/c they said they had nowhere else to go with the character? They got all they could out of him? But what do you think they should've/could've done with the character had he stayed? I think they killed him off as that was the start of the Fred Bartholeme (producer) get rid of the "old" people thing. I do agree though, what to do with Kim and Dan next? Luckily back in those days they didnt keep breaking super couples up and putting them together like Carjack, Lily and Holden, Josh and Reva...etc.

Personal opinions vary! Betsy and Steve swallowed the show whole, even Marland said that...but I think a lot of people remember the second Betsy, Meg Ryan's version was brain dead but people must have loved them.

I found ALL the Stewarts except for SexBombEmily to be dull. Now that you mention it David is very moody, but I thought that made him a bit more interesting and also set him apart from always cheerful always stalwart Bob. David was the Ed Bauer kind of patriarch...they should have let him be a drunk or something fun..though I did like that he was bagging whatsherface from AW but he had to have amnesia to even do that. It was weird that the Dobsons thought they could do away with Nancy and Chris and replace them with David and Ellen..David was morose and Ellen was weak and dull as dishwater. God, I forgot how much I was annoyed by Ryan's Betsy, morosely wandering around Spain....I love how she never had to attend college and no one seemed concerned about her having a career..she was like a heroine from the 60s..it was all about her man and her baby.

From what little i've seen of Gunner i'm not impressed. I Did like the interaction between Barbara, Gunner, Lisa, Whit, Kim, Bob and Miranda. It's so strange to me seeing Bob married to someone besides Kim. I did like the Betsy/Steve/Craig/Diana quad. I loved seeing the passion that MC and JD brought to Tom and Margo. It's really sad that soaps today don't have the money for a location shoot or to use music. Hated Gunnar and his weird mouth...never understood his popularity. The Babs/Gunnar group together was good in that it got everyone together, which ATWT did not do well at this point. I just kept watching that and imaging what Marland would do for it, as it is comparable to everyone coming to Bob and Kim's house when something happened.... the Dobsons make it look like they just were trying to burn off gaurantees (and one of the reasons Fulton left) and it is ackward. Marland would have had Lisa stopping by to discuss Tom with Bob, and Miranda would have her stay for dinner, and Lisa would say it was a good time to get Bob and Whit to sit down at a table, and KIm would be mentioning Betsy and Craigs problems,etc. The writers here focus on one storyline issue a scene. Princi could have been interesting as a character with an edge..maybe a Lucy like business woman. Instead any conflict is ignored by having her being a high society housewife. Bilan was so boring, the Dobs created these boring young characters like Nick's stepdaughter who disappeared quickly. A good storyline would be that Miranda and Whit were exlovers or lovers currently behind Bob and Lisa's back...(Bilan a Whit daughter would freak Diana out) Of course, they would have to have a recast Whit, this guy is gross. The Tom and Margo scenes are as fresh as when they are first aired and I HATED Deas on GL. The two of them are so intimate in this...its like a real couple discussing a really stupid misunderstanding. Sets are ugly...(weird to see Kim in that house set which would be iconic with she and Bob..) and yes, Kim and Lisa's hair..what the freak did Fulton think..it made her look 20 years older.

I think it was stupid that Fulton decided to leave when she did. I didn't like the Dobbies but I think they wrote for her..she wasn't the end all and be all of Oakdale but they created a whole family to surround her..it was her choice to start having Lisa act like an airhead and dying her hair to get attention,etc. Sometimes I wonder if these people have anyone who tells them..."Are you crazy leaving???"