Mitch

Damn, Bruder looks great! I agree, the vets kept the discarded underwear model/actors from other shows in the basement and siphoned off their vitality or something. I thought Ellen was a bore but I can't believe they didnt bring her back for Nancy's funeral or the end.

One of my favorite scenes of all time was when Steve charged James and James flat out knocked him on his ass! I wonder if this was Marland and the producers "F*ck you," to Mr. "You can't touch me, I am the star of the show."

LOL....I knew I was going to get people upset with that! I actually thought Block was hot but will agree, he wasnt Craig..even Dobson's Craig was that smug! Let me clarify....I liked the original Craig actor I just hated how Marland did his usual neutering on him and he was a wuss constantly in love. I prefer even smug Craig to that one. Though I thought Block was best on GL. He was SUPPOSED to be annoying. Though I still think Block is hot I I know, no accounting for taste. Though I have to say, in that clip above, I would have laid snug on that couch with James forever..."Okay James, tell me one more time your latest ridiculous evil plot. Kidnapping Barbara? That was so 1983. Kidapping Lily??? You'll have to get at the end of the line. Kidnapping three women and changing them to old hags? This is Oakdale not Port Charles or Salem.! You just stay right here with me and we will keep you out of trouble...."

God I hated Steve and the actor's serial killer popping eyes and flaring nose. I love Lucinda but It kinda gross seeing hot James getting all horny with Lucinda. I hate seeing Lucinda used. I wish they had just kept them as mutually wicked business people getting off on each other's wickedness then lovers. Though you have to love the old "James evil scheme," monoloque from him to let us know what he is up to. James looks much better in his black turtleneck then those bad beige sports coats with the patched sleaves he had to wear during the Dobsons. Wussy love lorn Craig is boring. I know no one agrees but I like Hunt Block's sleaze boy even better then this.

I'm sorry, I always found Iva such a drip! Actually, I had no use for any of the Snyders, especially when they became TEAM LILY!! Iva could have grown as a character into a stronger, more lively woman as she dropped her baggage...(I don't even want to think about the endless "therapy," sessions with Dr. Michaels, uh,Iva, just tell us your in therapy, we will believe you.) When they put her with Kirk she was kind of fun, and she had some zingers back and forth. But they broke them up to put him with the wretched Ellie (whom everyone had to tell the audience how "funny," she was though she wasnt) and the depressing abortion storyline. What was with Marland taking a kind of funny couple like them and John and Lucy and break them up for a depressing couple like John and Emma and Kirk and Ellie. Come to think of it, its why I switched to GL at this time as ATWT was morose and GL had funny couples trading zingers and some comedy.

The show was actually pretty good at this time..as the Reva/Annie thing hadnt quite gone overboard. I liked how they included other people. Raines was a terrible Alan.

I would love for someone to film an interview with all of them..maybe with some wine flowing and let them blab about all their experiences on the show. They wouldn't have to worry about offending TPTB etc.

Was Lana "real," or a fan fiction thing?

No that was the end of Rauch, the last storyline they really had. I will give it to Rauch, he said as long as he was EP JVC, Garret and LK would stay on contract and stay on they did.

It was a PG thing...and the network, that demanded the changes. I have to say, I would agree with replacing RM as Chele...not that she wasnt talented but she would not have been able to carry a traditional soap romantic pairing..so Chele would be sidelined as a frumpy best friend...(take it that I don't agree with who they recast with or what was written for Michele aftewards, I am just saying I can see why they did it.) I remember watching "Bully," and yellling at the TV..."Stop that Michelle Bauer and go put some clothes on!" like a nut so my partners asked..."Who is this Michele Bauer actress and why do you care if she is taking her clothes off." Also to be blunt, the Billy younger actor was not that great of an actor and mumbled his lines. But I do agree that Laibson's GL was dark but that came from non other then our beloved McTrash!

Lily whipping Holden???? It seems that the original idea had a lot more interesting heat then the boring one that Marland went with..and also maybe showed another side of Marland's uh...interests...(I can imagine that a shirtless Holden in his tight jeans would be sweat and bent over ...and well lets hope so! )A bitchy Lily and the hot sexually forward stable boy and their interest in S/M would have been much more interesting then boring St. Lily...and Holden, Jr. Business Man. "Its all about honesty," Uh shut up Lily and pick up the horse whip! I always thought Seth was gay too..(and interesting that Marland based the character on himself.) God, I totally forgot the wretched Angel storyline, with all the Snyder boys circling that dull as dishwater woman and the rape thing..(though I did think it interesting when they hinted Angel was going to go nuts and she kept fondling Marland's weapon du jour..the ever present letter opener...Go Angel Go!)

LOL. at the Bob sneer in that clip. Forgot about that Emily...she was terrible, but soon she would wake up to be a bodacious babe! I like how quickly Marland centered the show around Bob and Kim and their multigenerational family. Sorry, I was being sarcastic, and following up on my comment that Seth and Casey were duller then dull. Marsha didn't fall asleep..but I am not sure how they got her out.

Easy, they just started talking and Marsha fell asleep..walked right past her.

Actually, I can't believe Fulton didn't bitch at this time. She left during the Dobsons and came back and they made her involved in everything...Whit's murder, fighting with Lucinda, her step kids lives, all the young people would hang around her. Then most of her family left and she became a bit more calmer under Marland. I liked Lisa best when she was the head of the familyh and she had all the kids around her and she was butting into all the kids lives. HATED her with queeny Earl.

Loved ATWT at this time..then it all kind of became Marland's Hour of Morose and the Lily Show. I love how Marland is so good with the details and how the show always handled "groups," better then any show before or since. I also like that Frannie has a brain here. And Hot Tom is always a treat.. I like that through his worry he made sure his 80s hair was poofed and he was showing chest...though unlike Margo I would have said, "Okay, I wont go, lets go home to bed!" This is my favorite Margo, Margaret Colin always came off so strident. I always liked whatsherface as white trash Meg...no matter what she always looked sweaty. Bad: Casey and Seth, the two dullest wimps of love interest ever..(the Casey/Lyla love affair could induce a coma) if Frannie would know they were on the way to rescue she would be like" Okay, I'm screwed." What is up with Lisa's frau like dedazzled sweater..in summer? And Craig freakin' crying...just no wimp boy, buck it up okay???

I just think that writer's didn't know what to DO with Holly. She was a mature woman who was neither good nor bad. Reva lost much of her dual nature on the second go around and if it was't for Zimmer curving some of her line readings and giving the side eye, Reva would have been a total cartoon...(and if not for the fact that the other actors seemed to love to give Zimmer hell in her scenes...) Van kept her bitchy edge but since she really had no storylines it was easier to keep her truer to her nature. But look at Carmen, total cartoon and Marj's Alex..a screaming hyperventilating shrew. They just didn't know how to write realistically for women of that age. Also keep in mind that Holly was so tied to Roger (at least in the writer's mind) that it was hard to write anything else. To Rauch's credit I think he was the one who kept Holly, Blake and Ross on contract no matter what. I do wish they would have had Roger just die off camera, where we find he had bought up so much of the ever multiplying Spaulding stock and he gives his stock and wealth to Holly. That would have made Holly and Alan have to interact and he would try to seduce her to control the stocks. RR would finally have a woman of his own age (he looked ridiculous with the younger women) and as I said, the only woman besides Watros that he had chemistry with was MG (I do think that Zimmer and he had chemistry but it was a friendly one..not sexy.) Holly and Buzz never worked...they threw them together just because of their "age," (though not as bad as putting him and Marj together...Alex wouldnt give that troll a second look, and Marj was what, 20 years older then Deas?)

I don't remember Annie and Holly in the nut ward together. I remember Annie seing that Holy had the kids and calling Reva to get the cops but disappearing from there for good. Wasn't the last time we saw Ken he was out wandering the woods, never to be seen or mentioned again! Would have been great to have Holly accidently off Dustin Fleas...I don;t know who he was blowing to stay around so long. Holly's recovery would have been great if she came out of it, as I mentioned more confident and sure of herself and tired of being the victim. A non psycho, kinda Bev Alex Holly would have been fun..especially since in their one brief scene Ron Raines and MG had great chemistry (personally the only one I think he ever did, he didnt with poor Signey Coleman. Holly marrying Alan for power and money and Alan marrying Holly to screw Roger over, but then them finding out that they really liked each other but they would continue snarking at each other. Imagine Aelx coming back and finding Holly her sis in law? Didnt they bring Tom Wiggens in as potential love interest for Holly, he was a cowboy. They were good but then he got sacrificed to be con artist to steal Cassie's money so she would have to get invovled with the fairy prince. UGGGGH the show's potential bit the crapper with that stupid island characters.

I liked Dinah being a bitch again but they had to make her psycho...as someone at that time would see something work (Annie) and think, "Hey let's just beat this to death!" I would have preferred if Cassie was a trashy troublemaker with a heart and Dinah and her would be equals in battle...but they had LW who always has to play it like an entitled prom queen. I actually really like the Nursey Rhyme stalker and think it could have worked with a little less cartoonish-ness...people have done worse on soaps so I think Holly could have bounced back..and I would have liked it if they made her have some confidence and be a bitch taking on Alan and tossing off those bitchy one liners that Holly did so well. I thought Abby and Rick were cute..nice and normal but not sugary sweet. It was the last time Rick and MOl was viable.

I was really entertained by the show then. Sure it wasn't the Curlee era but it was fast moving, fun and still GL...Reva was front and center but the show had everyone involved. It wasnt until Santos and really the Fairy Princes showed up that the show really sucked..(even more then the Clone.) I didn't like that they had to attack Abby..I know it made for a storyline but I was so sick of strong women being assaulted on soaps. MOL was still cute then...never figured out why they let Abby go and turn them into the nice normal couple everyone talks to.

I don't think it was Long who didn't like Katie, I think it was Gail Kobe. I read an interview when she was leaving and the actress said that Kobe treated the cast she liked like her children, and she called herself a "Step-Child." so... Never liked Nadine thought she was a kinda take on Nola and the actress who played her was terrible and too young and pretty...(I saw Nadine as a hagard has been smoking a ciggie and drinking brown drinks.) But then, the whole Cooper family was a rip off of the Reardons. Though when Nola returned it would have been funny if she and Nadine went on trashy capers. And yes, Buzz did isolate Nadine who should have been out there stirring it up and annoying Springfield but when he came back she was stuck in 5th street with the rest of the mopes and mooned over Buzz.

Yea, I never knew if they wrote him that way or if it was the way O'Leary played him (plus the bloat and the really bad plastic surgery.) If they just had him loose a little weight, and tell O'leary to tone down the mugging and the dopiness it could have worked.

I thought they replaced MH with PS as they wanted someone "younger and sexier," which makes me LOL to think that anyone ever thought PS was "sexy." Don't get me wrong, he is Ed to me...but I didn't think Ed was supposed to be sexy. Its too bad that they didn't bring MH back later on after Mo died. The show needed a warm central figure and PS Ed was never warm. MH always seemed more "cuddly," like Charita and Ellen Parker....I guess I like my GL tentpole to be a little chubby!!! ( which leaves me to ask why they didnt make MOL the tentpole later on???)

So the show was so good at this time, people coming back..bitchy fights, mysteries, family fights. Before the show got a Morose Makeover Curtesy of Marland..and the Snyders havent eaten the show alive. I loved Duncan when he was first on and smarmy and mysterious and fun....I forgot that Shannon used to be written as fun. They both typically became boring and morose when they got together and especially when they paired Duncan with that cold fish Tamara Tunie. However, I kept thinking that Nola, uh Iva should have been mouthing Shannon's lines...I wonder if Marland had a storyline in mind for Nola involving a castle on an island and a Scottish stud. Lyla seemed to borrow Lisa's wardrobe for the night and I loved Fulton giving Lisa a bit of an edge with her lines, and her looks, she is under no impression that thinks are okey dokey and lol at her easedropping while putting on lipstick. Also love the Mona Lisa being the center of activity. Ellen even got to be bitchy and I liked Susan better as a qausi trashy neglenctant mother then the morose lovelorn doc. Though I was surprised that Lisa was so happy to see her. I thought she would give David a "Are you freaking kidding me look," when he asked her where she was staying...."The only damn place in town David, the Lakeview Towers!"

I agree. I think the main thing is that they really tossed out that " close family feeling," that the show had for so long. Everyone was connected to everyone else, etc. That didnt come back until they left. I think that the show could have managed the camp, adventure and cartoonishness of the Dobsons if they had kept that family thing going. A LOT of Marland was camp...Duncan moving an entire castle with secret passages to midwestern Oakdale? The "ghost" monks of the castle, the real "ghost," of the castle, Lillith, the shrunken head of annoying Shannon (come to think of it most of the camp was surrounding that dumb castle..) but it was okay as the family background was intact.

Yea, Marcia escaped and kidnapped Frannie and that annoying Casey saved her..(I think.)