Mitch

I always thought Paker would make a great Alexandra Spaulding recast...or maybe Elizabeth Spaulding..so she would have made a cool Iris.

You also have to understand Fulton. She was a tireless self promoter (one of the first soap "stars," and she had a p.r. agent, etc) so you can't always take her word for things as she liked to embellish (and get the publicity of having a body guard.) Though I did know ATWT as my mom would say, "I have to see what that bitch Lisa is up to today." ) So Lisa did get under ladies skin in those days! I think Zaz and McKinsey were probably a bit more remote and untouchable then Fulton was in public.

Who was Irizarry balling that he was in every promo, etc. Did JFP have the hots for him (I had forgotten his speech impediment which use to drive me crazy..or maybe its an accent.) Speaking of JFP...I never saw her "in person," and at first I did indeed think it was Brent/Marion so that rumor that they modled "her," after JFP has to be true. The Country Club set looks so small there and it looked huge on the show. Funny that MG was talking about sets..she didn't see Peapack coming..(though really, all you need is a living room, kitchen, offfice, place to eat and bedrooms to tell a good story on a soap.)

No... but I remember them from their first air! Yea, Poser would have been good given something to do and toned down a bit. They needed a back story explanation, as underneath all the bravado she was still that vunerable woman ( I would say plain and boring) that Cullen played. Kind of like Lucinda was a creating of Mary Alice Waters, THIS Amanda was how she could deal with the world and her family. She played wistful very well..and could sling a one liner...(would have loved to see her with Bev.) Alan: "Amanda, Josh just tried to kill me!" Amanda, checking for dust on the table, "Who hasnt???"

Newman was really good when they let him act in his own style. I do remember much of the Rauch years they would try to make him more over the top..I guess to show his "passion," but it didnt work and he would grit his teeth and scream and it was weird. Newman was especially good with the younger cast and very gentle and supportive in his scenes. He should have gotten an award just for trying to work with Marty West! I know everyone else complained about her, but I loved Poser's Amanda. I know she would have worked better as another character, (with her exotic looks she should have been from another branch of the Spauldings. I thought Cullen's Amanda was such a drip, I loved Poser's vamp..but she could also do quiet well when they would let her. If they had just explained why Amanda was now so out there and the change from her mousy past. I thought MOL and the Abby actress worked quite well together. Too bad they didn't keep them together..(and too bad he became a bloated fool later.)

They should have just written Jenna and Buzz out together with a happy ending. Actually at that time they should have wrote Matt and Vannessa out to and then had her come back a while later Matt-less.

Actually, I thought Bob and Kim were the center of the show right up to the very end. I think that they both provided a more vital role then Chris and Nancy did post 79...as they both kept working, and werent regulated to just serving coffee. True, their airtime was cut down but they never disappeared for months at a time like Lisa. I also don't really want to see Bob or Kim having affairs, Plus, if you compare them to what GL did to the Bauers and their older people. I agree that not expanding the Hughes family was stupid. Bringing back Frannie and Sabrina (played by different actresses please) and having Sabrina be the problem member of the family (it was getting old having Babs be the pain in the ass all the time.) My main complaint was that damn pink suit they had poor Kathy Hays wear day in and day out. This is well to do woman, and that is all she has?

Again, I thought I was the only one who thought that MKA looked too old to play India (who was saw have her 21st birthday) in the 80s. Funny that later on she looked fine as she didnt change much, so it worked when she was older. The Four Musketeers were really thrown off not only with the recast but with Pam Long leaving and the whole change in tone of the show. Close friendships and realtionships were thrown out for action adventure and tyring to be like Dallas lite. Rick and Phillip did have a scene where, beleive it or not, they talked about whore houses..(this is when Roxie had a very stupid split personaltiy of Rosie and gone to live in a whore house...yea, that was what GL became. at that time...) Anyway, Rick is trying to pump info from Phillip on how a whore house works (which is implied that he visits high class prostitutes) and Phillip lears about Rick going to one. It was creepy and weird.

LOL..Macgregor was dull. I agree with you that MOL should have been recast post Abby (though he is looking pretty hot in the break up scenes in the kitchen..) I thought I was the only one on earth who thought that. MOL became more then schlubby, he always looked like he was slob, and he really began to rely on just mugging for the camera and making Rick a fool all the time. I think a recast from someone who was sexy in a non threatneing way, like James Denton on DHW..but with more of a sense of humor. Rick needed to be recast if he was going to be the only male Bauer, and then Bauer left in town. He needed to be the nice, sexy, fun guy next door, not the weird uncle that he was in the last few years. I heard that Conboy wanted to recast him but MADD wouldnt let him. Anyone have any info?

Like the John/Nancy exchange. That was the Nancy of old..and the John of old trying to tweak her ("I imagined you WOULD.") I remember not liking this Dee actress but in these scenes she seems relaxed and better...(I like the shoes off feet on the couch...a thing a real person would do and not very Marlandy where everyone was proper.) I didn't know that Schultz came back as Dee in 86...what where her scenes about?

God I hated Courtney! And I never liked Big Headed Frannie and Daryl was a bore...(so now I know why I quit watching at this time...)

Wow, that Bob/Kim scene....man Kim is brutal. But in the context of what was happening...(his affair, her estrangement and David's death) it makes sense. I love the Kim/John scene..I liked them as friends and co-parents but he was still able to get under people's skin. I love the line, "Do you ever regret divorcing Lucinda?" Uh, if John didn't the viewers did. What was up with Marland doing that? I do realize that the big thing is not that Bob had an affair, but it was with Susan and that he still had the hots for her of all people. I still can't beleive Marland never brought Dan up. I can here Susan saying "Face it Kim, its about Dan as much as Bob, let it GO!" and Kim laying into Susan for that. I thought the Karen actress left the show, not that she was written out. A lot of characters with potential left right before Marland....Karen, Diana, Maggie...all the kind of women that Marland could have worked with (and eventually turn into wusses worrying about Lily.)

LOL..that clip was too funny. This was before Marland as you can see the show was a bit more lighthearted and campy. I LOVED Karen..hated her at first as she was after that drip Jeff and causing problems for boring Annie, but when they had her blackmail James into marriage (grabbing him right out from under boring Dee) and then married to John, and then divorcing him and fighting Lucinda, she was fun. The actress had the skill to make Karen really relatable and rootable, despite what she would do. She reminds me of a young Harley before Beth Ehlers became so shrill and annoying. I think that Karen was a little too tough and funny for Marland, I can't see her sitiing around talking about honesty or worrying about Lily. Speaking of..I forgot how fun Lucinda was before she was obsessed with Lily! I wish there was clip out there of Karen impersonating Lucinda's beautician and dying her hair pink or orange or something (something WAAAAYYYY too lowbrow for Marland but fun.)

Carol wasn't preggers. Annie lost the baby she was carrying from Brad when she heard at the trial that Dee was dreaming of screwing Brad when John raped her (resulting in a mis trial.) Annie then got artificially inseminated to carry Steve and Carol's baby. She lost that baby. Andy was always an Ed Bauer to me..not a hero and not a villan but weak. I never liked Defretias but maybe its because I didn't like Andy..first he was an alcy, then he was in love and married that boring Courtney and then he was addicted to Julie...and then Denise and the baby...he was always "weak," or addicted to me. I dont know why they didnt bring him back from time to time especially since his wife was the "star," of the show.

Yea, as I said, it was a bad time for ATWT what with Wagner leaving, the David actor was doing a play for six months so he disppeared and became a suspect in John's hit and run, and the Dobsons being fired or quit, and the strike coming in just as a new writer came in..so the show was coasting on the fumes of the Dee rape trail and kind of stuck there in time. The new writers brought in a cast of new characters and actors which wasnt popular to begin with and then the strike hit. I actually dont think the show really recovered from that time until Marland came. The Carol character never married the minister on screen, she just kind of disappeared. The wedding she was at was Dees' aborted wedding to James. It is too bad she was not kept on recurring, she was like "Miss Normal," and could have been a good talk to while workign for Lisa at Fashions etc.

That's interesting..I don't believe I ever saw a Deas McClaughling clip before. I always wondered how he would act with his "grandparents," as everyone was so distant from each other at this time. I also have to say, Deas was cute without the beard. This was a really bad period in ATWT...right after the Dobsons, Wagner quit, they brought in all these new characters (all practically tied to James) and then the writers strike.

Im sure they never asked Loring back. She was a terrible actress and the character was not very interesting. Plus she married a porn star or something and went kind of nuts and pissed PG off. Michael

LOL..I watched the other clip and laughed at the mention of the therapy session! Watchign the first clip I remember how watching this was almost like if my own parents were splitting up! And they say college students dont like to watch "old," people. And WHY did they go to therapy? I mean Bob and Susan just got it on once right? On that note, I HATED Mack! Why put classy Nancy with that gross old man who never gave out bad good advice like Chris would?

Ah, Alex from the begginging was dark..she just was not one to stoop to Alan and Roger's level. She knew Alan was involved with whatever dumb international group was started the Dreaming Death, but helped him escape, and then held released the vaccine to make Spaulding Pharmacutical a "small," profit. This was still Pam Long material and she wrote Alex best. I think Bev didn't like the fact that JFP wanted to turn Alex into a total witch and that Alex was obsessed with her boring and sanctimonious son. Also, it was begging to look like Alex was bullying Mindy long after the Roger affair. That clip showed was a horrible actor Jay Hammer was. I know he was living with Long so that is why she kept him but why would anyone else? I woulda had him killed by Brent/Marion (though I woulda killed Buzz that way too.) Roger and Alex..damn I loved them!

Actually, Miranda was created by the interim writers but yes, the Dobs married them! I don't think they knew what to do with Bob or any of the Hughes besides Tom. And actually, Miranda could have worked as Mrs. Hughes except that the Dobsons gutted the Hughes family and the whole structure of the show. Everyone was disconnected to each other so nothing had an impact. If they still had Nancy on the show I could see how she would react to Miranda. And if they bothered to give Miranda a personality after they were married. It would have been interesting if she would have been a Lucinda type, in love with Bob but feeling restricted in her life and wanting to go into business. I always wandered why they didnt connect her to Whilt McColl some how..causing a Bob/Miranda/Whit/Lisa triangle. The problem was Whit was so gross who would have wanted him. Even more boring then Miranda was her daughter "Bilan." who served no purpose.

I can't believe the Kim of "listen TOOTS!" would be Nick's quiet wifey for a few years and then..nothing, until the Dobs left. Nick and Kim would have worked better if she gave him it to him like that once in a while.

I wonder what stories Marland would have pursued had he stayed? This Bennet thing is an abrupt end, as Marland's stories all begat new stories. He must have been the one to set in motion Joyce coming back as I read some old articles that the Dobsons took over officially in January. I also like that Lisa seemed to be maturing as opposed to the jittery fluttery woman the Dobson's wrote for. I can't believe that no one saw the chemistry that Bob and Kim had and that they would make a younger core couple. I know the Dobson's used them to bring in new familes but the Bob and Lyla thing never worked and I really really disliked Nick. A Lisa/Bob/Kim/Nick quad would have been interesting with the outcome of Bob and Kim. I still like this Tom..though I do understand that the show was jock full of stuffy upper middle class people, and the Dobs wanted to bring in Hippie Tom. I love all the phone conversations and Kim being a mom..those were all Marland signatures

Ah, Paul Kover's cute Chris. He was no great actor but he brought the nice and the cute. I forgot the chemistry he had with Wagner in particular and of course Hastings and Hays. Why was Lisa being so bitchy about Margo? (and how many time in 50 years did people say, "Oh Lisa stop!!!")

Yea, Laibson redid Company into some "hip," urban lounge, which was supposed to be a neighborhood pub. Bridget was involved in the "Gaslighting Roger," storyline which was almost as weird as Blake going along with it..Bridget actaully had an okay relationship with Roger and smart Bridget would have used him to drive a wedge between Dinah and Roger. I did not want to see Bridget chasing after Steroid Hart but if they were going to have that, as least make her smart. Then they had her do the "Should I get platic surgery thing,' which was so unlike what Bridget had become. I remember a scene with Brigdet suggesting that to Roger and Zaz, played it so sensitively and fatherly and still Roger-ly. I think the Rauch also didn't think she was hot enough but that is how Bridget worked, as a normal person. They could have kept her for years even if she didn't have big stories, she could have been the tough young version of GH's Aunt Ruby running Company and kind of filling Mo's role as least a Mo in training.

I loved the "Laura," story.. who would have though boring Leslie Anne from GL would make such a great psycho??? It was during the strike so the material was a bit more sensational then Marland ever wrote but that is what made it fun. It started with Bob saving Laura from someone chasing her in "Elmwood Park," (one of those weird names, phrases that Marland would have everyone repeat, over and over, like "Ruxton Hills," and "I need honesty in my relationship,") which we find out later was her brother. The Hughes being the Hughes they invite her to stay with them and she becomes Chris babysitter. It was weird but in Chicago at that time there was the Laurie Dann thing where she went nuts and held a son and mother hostage after the horrible act of shooting up a pre school. The clip of Laura on ATWT boss arm laying out of the tub with blood running down it (she killed him with a razor) was the last scene before the cut went to the Laurie Dann rampage. Laura was much more interesting then boring Angel Lange and the letter opener she constantly fondled. God I hated that story.