Mitch

So funny watching these..besides the Bennet story everything they talked about was so real and naturalistic. Wedding Showers, Nancy baking for Christmas..I can see why with GH doing weird stuff and being "action," all the time this seemed weird and "old." but its kind of nice. It wasnt until Marland came back that the show was able to balance all the OTT with, Nancy looking for a serving spoon, kind of stuff and James back from the dead, etc. Was Marland planning on writing Dana out too? All this talk of a wedding is typical Marland, "some [!@#$%^&*] is going to hit the fan soon." She got written out at Christmas. Also, it does seem as if it was Marland who was bringing back Joyce with Nancy and Chris and San Fran. Were the chem testing Kim and Grant. Dont see it happening chem wise but an interesting story for Lisa to come back and her best friends was dating her ex who she was still in love with. The wedding dream reminds me of Dark Shadows and the Josette wedding with her veil inveiling her rotted face.

Agreed...They could do some good shots, like the Christmas episode where Reva and Josh are supposed to be on the balcony of the Towers and its filmed in New York so SF looked glamarous, larger like a town not a little burg. IIf they had just found a way to build permanent sets that looked good and were big. I always thought Wheeler went for too many sets, where she should have stuck with a couple "community" sets like Company, the Towers, and Cedars and couple all purpose homes like of course the Spaulding Mansion, the Bauer house, etc,(there was no reason why they needed the police station or the Courtroom...have the cops talking by a cop car and rent a courtroom when you need one) and do it the old soap way, people coming in and out to talk about things...(yea, I knew it wasnt real during Marland's ATWT that everyone would hang out at Bob and Kims and just walk in but it worked. ) I always remember the scene of Alan of all people on his cell phone walking across the baseball diamond in a suit???? No explanation for why he was wandering around Springfield. Agreed...They could do some good shots, like the Christmas episode where Reva and Josh are supposed to be on the balcony of the Towers and its filmed in New York so SF looked glamarous, larger like a town not a little burg. IIf they had just found a way to build permanent sets that looked good and were big. I always thought Wheeler went for too many sets, where she should have stuck with a couple "community" sets like Company, the Towers, and Cedars and couple all purpose homes like of course the Spaulding Mansion, the Bauer house, etc,(there was no reason why they needed the police station or the Courtroom...have the cops talking by a cop car and rent a courtroom when you need one) and do it the old soap way, people coming in and out to talk about things...(yea, I knew it wasnt real during Marland's ATWT that everyone would hang out at Bob and Kims and just walk in but it worked. ) I always remember the scene of Alan of all people on his cell phone walking across the baseball diamond in a suit???? No explanation for why he was wandering around Springfield.

That is interesting, I didn't know that..where did you hear that? Plus Freddie Bartholemuex was still producer at that time, not MEB. Did he have a problem with the Hughes as he was a producer of the show for a long time. I love Behind the Scene stuff.

I do have to agree..I do think that Wheeler cared. Unfortunately she was clueless. Now if we could have had someone who cared with someone who had one little clue.... I also agree that, besides throwing Buzzard into the Van/Billy wedding, she gave GL a solid send off. I put GL to "rest," so to speak as it got its heart back, I knew what happened to everyone (who woulda thought we would have had a Reardon reunion ever) and as sappy as it all was, everyone was happy.) I miss ATWT more as it just kinda "ended." I also thought Peapack could have worked, bringing soaps back to what they were in the day, normal people dealing with a hightened reality. People were talking again, etc. I really think if PG had given her a real budget and a real headwriter it would have worked great.

It seems that is the case. I can't see the Dobson's bringing back a character so immersed in the Hughes family and the whole Nancy and Chris and Grant talking about SF is a total Marland, "Something is coming up," thing. Knowing him I think he probably would have had Nancy see Joyce in a crowd for a second and then dismissing it and Joyce following them around town and back to Oakdale. An interesting time in ATWT, and really makes me not like the Dobson's any better. There was a lot of potential at this time in updating the show but keeping the core and the Dobson's screwed it all up.

It doesnt seem to be a Guiding Light project...I have a bad feeling this is going to be a soap about actors whose show was cancelled or some nonsense. And would Peapack be a good place to have this little reunion...everyone hated it and it just seems that this wasnt the wisest place to do this. Newman and Wheeler look great. They don't ever seem to age. Billy looks like a real guy who aged normally and so does Frank D..the rest I shall keep my mouth shut about. ..(okay I wont, is this going to be a show about bad plastic surgery???)

I am not saying she wasn't popular, I just think that it would have worked better to have John defended by another town weirdo. I think the Dobson's thought it "daring," to have a rapist defended by a woman. Maggie did get together with Steve's hottie cousin Frank who was three million times hotter then annoying, nostril flaring Steve. LOL on those clips again...a LOT of talking and not much happening. I would love to see the credits but it seems so Marland with the people walking in and out and all the phone calls about "dinner," and who is coming. The only thing is I keep expecting them to say, "Where will we go for dinner...I don't know, maybe the Mona Lisa?" Love John slyly bugging Bob, and Kim's total blow off and annoyance with him. Are they setting up the return of Joyce with Nancy and Chris going to San Francisco, because they keep making a point of saying San Fran over and over again, and with Grant saying, "I use to live there." Was it Marland's idea to bring back Joyce and the Dobson's kept going with it? It seems they werent interested in Don and Mary and completely ignored Nancy and Chris' involvement later on.

OH-KAY! I often wonder if the people who invoke Karma don't realize that it works both ways..so perhaps your right now your saying one thing..and some bitchy person will not understand and jump down YOUR throat! So..what I was saying is that the show had WAY too many middle aged people, who all looked and acted the same....(how many lawyers were in that scene anyway???) There was no energy, the lighting was crap, hell even Betsy was dressed like a frau..poor Pat Brueder was dressed to look 20 years older, etc, hell, even Helen Wagner dressed younger in the 80s then she did here (maybe it was the times???) The needed diversity bad, both in the types of characters and in their ages. Granted..the show went TOO far by getting rid of Chris and Nancy and destroying that whole "family," interconnectedness. And as others have pointed out, they got rid of them but still kept the bad sets, lighting, etc. And really when I think of the ABC soaps at that time I was thinking of All My Kids which was the as close to ATWT an ABC show could get (multigenerational surrounding families...etc.) While I don't like the camp of AMC the energy and just .."liveliness," of the show was what ATWT needed. Yes, Marland turned Nancy into the sweet grandma but you can take that as her mellowing. I remember on AW didn't Lemay base the Matthews Aunt character on Nancy Hughes, though inverted it as the town busy body. Lemay always thought it was odd that Nancy Hughes was meddling in her middle aged kids lives, and ruled everyone, and everyone took it for granted that she was "good." I think he was consulting when Wagner returned right before Marland and she retained that imperious edge...they were cooking up Lisa driving a wedge between Nancy and Kim..which could have been interesting but so not Marlandish. As I said before...I like this Tom, if they had made him less stuffy. Deas was WAY too different. I think he would have worked better as his Santa Barbara character , though not bad, just weird and rebellious and it was him defending John in the rape trial...(as no one in town would defend him) instead of Maggie who felt tacked on to the Montgomery family. Deas would have worked as a buddy of Tom's from Vietnam who went to law school and was kind of jealous of the Golden Boy who he felt had it handed to him, kind of mirroring John's relationship with Bob, etc.

LOL...no wonder the ABC soaps rolled over ATWT, they had young people who LOOKED young, and their older people had more style...well everyone had more style. Here, Grant looks like he came off of a bender, Ralph looked like he was on the same bender, or he and Grant were making out in the law office restroom and mussed up each other's hair...I can also see why the Dobson's used Dee, she actually looks good (love that big head of 70s hair) and has life..too bad they made her a mope later on. I was laughing at poor Pat Brueder's look, to make her look as old as Nancy when she should be young enough to be Nancy's daughter, and everyone except Lisa, Kim, Barbara and even Nancy acted like they were on sleeping pills. This reminds me what Pauline Kael (sp?) said about soaps once, "Everyone acts like they are acting under water!" I can see how ABC looked hyper energetic and young and exciting compared to this. I think GL found a way to combine the two elements, but ATWT lost its way until Marland came back.

Hmmm. well I can see why they needed to "update," things. As discussed, everyone seems middle aged..besides Tom, Babs and Annie, and Tom acts middle aged and Annie LOOKS middle aged. Only Barbara seems young and vibrant so we can see why the Dobson's used her so much. Seems to be that they are writing Valerie off (talking about going to see her husband at Christmas and of course, never came back) and did they say the "Hollister," farm? A lot of talk, talk, talk, talk...but liked the scene where Lisa discusses turning the basement into a "wine cellar/cocktail lounge," which predates her turn owning a restaraunt and an actual bar in the cellar. Laughed at Tom ordering a "Chablis," so 70's. Too bad about that actor, he looks like I would think Tom looks, but he is so stiff and uptight. Also, poor Jay looks like a gay leprechan, I don't think Kim Hays or Fulton every aged that much, add to that Zenk and Wagner..what was it with the ATWT women? Marland still writing this, Dobsons dont start until January right? You can tell besides the Inn story, the show was treading water.

LOL...I actually find all of this much more entertaining then the Dobson's stuff. People are interacting and we have a lot of good old Marland exposition. I wonder if despite what Bridget Dobson said, that the execs saw what Marland was doing and thought the Dobsons;s were at the end of the line at GL, and thought the switch would be good. Kim, "I think he is the perfect man for you and this is the perfect place for you,"...uh, Kim, Lisa is a man hungry, bed hopping, busy body, glitzy dress wearing broad, much less where the hell are they going to find all the peroxide needed for that hair out in the woods? Lisa's love interest would look more appropriate selling used cars then looking like a tortured writer looking ominous and mysterious. We have prove positive that Marland was writing this, murder victims/suspects/side characters were referred to with first and last names constantly "Derrick Bickford, Derrick Bicford..." and a cuff link was a clue! I surprised they didn't have the maid fondle a letter opener as she spat out the name "LISA!" What was the significance of the black cat? I love Betsy "wild," teen party. I wanted to see the bad disco!!!!

Interesting theory...they did the same thing to Babs after her the explosion..where her entire extended Hughes family, who had stuck with her through all the crap she did, suddenly turns their back on her. I think that, and with the Lisa thing, is that Gautman but especially Fatso HATED ATWT's close knit but constantly strained family ties. Too "old fashioned," for him. I also hated how they took Lisa, who would take all of the bad boys and girls of Oakdale , the down and outs, etc, under her wing to help them (going as far back as Marcy, who accused Bob of all people coming on to her, still took her in.) Its like she became a ABC soap snotty rich lady.

Carly was never my favorite character (she and Jack became as tedious as Lily and Holden) but damn does she look great..looks like no make up either!

Agree that Marland was burned out near the end of his tenure, I quit watching all together..he kept repeating himself and brought in all these characters far from the core...(who the hell was Aunt Mary and her Coffee house anyway???) He should have been training someone for two years to make way when he left and maybe consulted on ATWT for a year or two. I would have loved to see what a Pam Long with a strong producer could have done....or if they moved Nancy Curleee to be head writer.

It had to be Marland..it has all the earmarks, the gothic storyline which is the template for the Doug Cummings storyline (I cant believe Marland didnt have Lisa say,"Oh Frannie I was once involved with a man who had an assistant who was obsessed with him...." the way he uses phones to keep the characters connected, the coming and going in the Hughes kitchen, the intro of another character arriving in the John/Kim scene and that conversation that Kim had with John is going to repeat itself with "Andrew," and his drinking. You can also tell Marland loves Kim and KH. He writes her not as a mope but as a strong willed, classy lady that is just a bit sad and overwhelmed with everything that has happened since her husband died. The Dobson's turned Kim back into a romantic heroine who let her husband push her around and then just as Betsy's mom. I I also like his version of Betsy and the way she told John what was what. Quite a change from what the Dobsons do to her and what she becomes with Meg Ryan. I have never understood why those two had the careers they did. Speaking of the Dobsons and recasts. I think this Tom is actually pretty good and sexy here(not in a Greg Marx way but he is only human...) I like his early L.L. Bean look..I think he could have worked if they had just made him relax a bit. He played Tom like he was Don and Bob's age...(though Lisa doesnt look that much older then Tom here.) All in all they screwed up with not keeping Marland at ATWT , but then we would never have had his "fixing," of the show and its return to glory in the 80s.

LOL..thank God I don't have any of those feelings, the only fruit I like is the one's available! I also don't know about you Khan, but I have a feeling that Collier would STILL be off limits to 95 percent of us! You know, there is only so much "romance," I want to see in the over 60, 70 and 80 crowd. Add that, that Fulton still played it like she was 30, tossing her head back in romantic exctasy with Gay Earl of all people. Anyway, I don't mind that the older characters became talk tos...all of Irna's older characters were just that. I think the problem is that they became ignored and unlike Marland's writing you never believe they had a life outside of that. Also, if they had Lisa keeping her own "voice," and giving out advice that would be totally different then what Kim and Bob would, that would be interesting. "Oh, Luke honey, gay or straight all men want the same thing, so give him just a little bit of that good stuff and then drag him around by his....nose!"

Yea, I think the Dobson's felt that their new families should be introduced using core characters, which I would agree with. Besides Margo and Maggie, I was never interested in the Montogmery family that much, and Steve and Nick's relationship was so depressing and angry it wasnt fun to watch. In hindsight since TPTB were so interested in shoving Nancy and Chris aside it would have made sense to put Bob and Kim in that role earlier...(especially since Don McClauginlin was starting to fail I believe even before he was taken off contract. ) I thought it would have been interesting and tied the family into things if Lyla and Nick were estranged/divorced so that instead of two new families it is one new family in town. Say Lyla came to town, but divorced from Nick, who would follow her, then Margo, and then leave off Cricket. Lyla and Nick could have both gone on to date Bob and Kim as the storyline went, but then when the [!@#$%^&*] hit the fan about John being Margo's dad, Bob and Kim move toward each other. I would have then had Lyla on recurring, and then push Nick into Lisa's arms after Grant dumps her once and for all. Lisa never had a blue collar guy and I think it would have been kind of interesting to have this over the top diva with a guy who could ground her. Fulton might have actually brought out a sense of humor in Nick. I think Nick was ment to be long term and I think he was fairly popular (because of Hays who seemed to have chemistry with everyone.) His storyline just didnt work. They brought in Andrea as back from dead and that went no where, and then they just married Kim and he off. I think the Dobsons were actually thinking they were going to take Nancy and Chris place on the canvas but Nick was not going to be a new Chris. I think that most likely both DH and KH would have complained about being the tent pole characters so soon, especially as the Dobson's didn't write tent poles very well. I also think that the Dobson's werent interested in ATWT history and didn't like that they would have to revisit it with Bob and Kim.

Wow, he did look hot back then, but as Whit, not so much! Plus he and Fulton had no chemistry..she always looked grossed out by kissing him! I can't think of anyone that age who would have been a good match for her...I do think the guy who played Nick and she had chemsitry..too bad they didn't bring him in as a Whit McColl type and I think he played "bad," better then good.

I actually think the Dobson's were gearing things up for fun things for her to play, with the intro of Diana McColl, spoiled daughter of Whit. Would have been fun to see Lisa and her go at it and Lisa butting in when Diana was trying to break up Betsy and Steve. I think that the problem was the actor who played Whit, with the dentures and the wig. Wasnt he a friend of the Dobson's? Fulton left too early, for the Dobson's to write a whole family around her was a big thing. Never liked Craig as a "villain," he was too whiny and not fun..and of course that weird sex thing the D's would always bring up, making him impotent on his wedding night to Betsy, (thus insuring that Steve broke her cherry like that was a big deal) but able to screw around with a waitress on their honeymoon, (I think they even had Craig have a fantasy of her in a german beer wench costume so he could get it up...) weird,weird stuff. I like MD's Margo, she just came across as too strident sometimes. I can't imagine Marland writing for her and her having scenes talking with "Gram," etc. I never liked the

That woulda been fun to see Lisa being a real bitch again (instead of just saying bitchy things to John,etc.) and to see her spice up David...(I wonder if she and HF would have had chemistry...he seemed so laid back all the time, I wonder if it would work.) Also fun to see the wimpy Annie and Dull Dee freak out over their dad screwing the middle aged town slut!

I think over that summer of 80, or 81 HF was off doing the road tour of "Whorehouse," so they had David disappear right after John was run over, and of course, they had him as a major suspect in the piss poor "mystery," that became of it. They would bring in Chris for a scene every month or so where Ellen would worry about David's whereabouts. It was stupid that they had Jame run him over as A) James would hire someone and if he did want to run over someone he would not miss, and B, it made his character a cartoon (all I remember him during the Dobson's is rubbing his hands together for some dumb master plan of his.) Jame should have been much closer to Alan Spaulding, a conflicted villain. So they brought him back right before the Dobson's came back. And yes, Ellen moved into some swinging Oldster complex, which was weird, as they had her lonely and loosing touch with her old friends instead of how Marland would write it, as everyone supporting her (the Dobsons really took the idea of Oakdale being a community and threw it in the toilet.) Even weirder was boring Ellen screwing the hot doctor. Ellen's sex life, nawww, I don't need to know anything about it. I thought at the time it would have been interesting to have Lisa go after David...reigniting the Ellen and Lisa fued. Imagine what Nancy would say (though Wagner was off the show then) about her "daughter," going after her family friend's husband? It would also bring back Bitch Lisa (Fulton would have loved it) and made her town pariah again. I woulda brought back a recast Don and had him screwing Ellen just to REALLY get Nancy clutching her pearls and the town in an uproar! I Larry and Frannie were together? What was it about her that attracted nuts or turned nomal guys onto older women? Larry was hilarious as he never appeared "straight, " for a minute so I would have thought they would have him run off with a guy not a woman.

I think they definatley would have had to recast Davidson, and should have done it earlier. She reminds me a lot of Rachel Minor (Michelle Bauer) She was beloved, especially since the audience went through a major characters death with the actress playing the character. But she like Davidson, was not going to be cut out for a "romantic" lead. By the same token, the kids on GL at the time that everyone on boards said they loved needed to be recast, the kid who played Bil Lewis and the Ben kid actor (who, grew up in midwest Springfield but had that terrible New York accent...) I have a feeling the Davidson/Rekell romance was made up for their boring and non-existent storyline.

Bob spends an awful lot of time having coffee with his Mom and Dad!

Khan, I have to admit, I kinda thought Deas at the time of Tom was kind of hot...though not right for Tom. It might be his year as Freakin' Buzzard Cooper where he ate up my show and half the scenery that I started to call him Dustbin Fleas. as he looked like he hated showers and spit on everyone yet every woman in SF fell at his feet! So I would put Deas into two categories...B.B. (before Buzz where I thought he was okay on the show, kind of hot, in the "Dont let any of my neighbors see you leave in the morning way," and A.B. (after Buzz) where I wanted to spay Lysol on my tv when he came on. So, it would not be that big of a fight, (lucky for me I say!!!) I just felt he would have worked as the new hippie weirdo lawyer in town. If they had gone back to Tom's vietnam history, said it made him kind of anti-establshment..that he got the "oddness," from Lisa, but the do-gooder from Bob, and that he would have a push-pull thing with staid family I could have believed it..but they all acted like he was normal and they never had many scenes with his family. Greg Marxx is really, and truly gay??? Oh, if my college age self would have not that hot Tom Hughes was gay...I think I woulda stalked him! And yes...God I would loved to have scenes with Nancy Hughes.."Young man quit yelling!" Did they have scenes together?

HMMM, David Forsyth..(his name right) with a cute dog...I'm in LURVE!