Mitch

They should have had the fire get out of control and burn down Nancy and Chris house and I can only imagine what the rest of the sets looked like. Yea, cotton candy hair and the rouge smeared on. I remember the girl who played Betsy at that time had the same thing, two globs of blush on her cheeks. And yea, Nancy's hairstyle and outfit was so dowdy...were they trying to make her look older? Which makes it so amazing the Joyce actress looks so pretty, despite coming back from the dead and being insane (wasnt she???)

Thanks!!! Love the clips...I have never seen clips of that time. Boy was Lisa's makeup terrible! And those sets! Damn, if I was a producer at the time I would have had a fire burn through town and build all new sets. I can see how the show seemed creeky and old compared to GH and the ABC shows. Too bad they didnt think that it might not be Nancy and Chris but the sets, lighting, music make up and staging. I did like that it had an everyday quality still, like Nancy coming home and putting the groceries away (and being confronted by her back from the dead daughter in law.) Were they chemistry testing Nick and Lisa? I always thought Lisa needed a guy like Nick, but he came off as an ass in this scene. I guess its the Dobson's idea of a real "man." I didn't get the "Well, I know where you come from." and his, "I don't try to hide it." First of all, does having a Greek sounding last name mean you actually CAME from there, and not your parents or grandparents, and is it a big scandal to be Greek? Nancy and Chris were two tough customers here werent they? Not the sweet grandparents most the shows had..and Nancy later became. I like it though she is quite a change from Bert Bauer..must have freaked the Dobsons out to write for them. I never thought about it as a kid but the Joyce actress is really beautiful! Too bad they wrote her out. Marland would have loved her and I liked her as a thorn in Lisa's side...a kind of Susan Stewart role..inside the "family," but not.

93 to 96...Buzz Cooper screaming, arms flapping and spitting is all I can recall of that era.

No it's Lisa's hotel, where Bob and Kim used to sit and eat and drink and discuss everyone's problems..constantly. Poor KH having to wear that pink suit day for the last 6 months of the show! But I have to say, the sets and the lighting look WAAAAYYY better then GL's even before the budget cuts and Peakpack. Did ATWT have that much bigger of a budget or did Gautman know how to do that one thing?

Wow..Bob and Kim's kitchen!!! I didn't think they used that set since the early days of Gautman. And my hottie Mike, with short hair just the way I like him!

I think they just dropped it as for one, they didn't know how to deal with it, and they just wanted to sweep "Phillip is the big bad, " under the carpet and forget it (remember Wheeler wanted GA and Phillip back as a James Stenbeck type bad guy and he wouldnt do it.) I think if they had brought him back when they should have (when we discovered he was alive) that would have been a very good storyline. I remember at the time most viewers were cheering when Phillip threw Grady off the cliff...I just laugh that he was brought in to be this big character and that was the end, nothing, he was gone.

Wow...Margo was always butch but she went full out dyke with that actress (not to mention, jeez, was she plain!) Was Marland writing this at the time...the recap dialogue is all Marland..."Well, with Iva on vacation.." I dont think people would ever put up with that kind of stuff today but it worked, it made it like Oakdale was more of a real town and you knew where everyone was even if they werent on the show that day. I also love that Kim and Bob were still discussing, going out to, and actually eating lunch, breakfast, brunch, dinner until the very end. That outdoor scene was weird, not only the cheap ass set, but were they padding the show for time, Emily just walks around and has flashbacks with that boring music ATWT used at the time. I also think Rauch snuck in and became the wardrobe head that day, that pastel suit and heals was totally our Pauley. Oh how I disliked Larry "Screamingly Gay," McDermont. I mean, they get a younger pretty boy for Susan and he is as dull as hell??? Mark Kasnoff had a love theme? I actually liked him and thought the actor was hot and not bad...much better then his orange brother. I liked it when they were acting like he and Lily were going to get together.

God...1994...terrible and I don't know what the ratings were at the time but I know that the quality of the show itself just screamed "cancel me!" Buzz, the Coopers, Frank and Eleni in an endless boring storyline, the fake Eleni, Vaness and Matt in their "ABC," romance, and of course, Tangie Hill and the Duck. I do remember JFP touting the 5th Street on fire thing (how many times has that dump been on fire) and the soap press, or maybe just Logan, getting on board...when Buzz through the TV set down I remember someone touting that to be JFP's indication that the bad times were over for GL. HA, HA!!! Yea, but we got a full week of Buzz screaming at the top of his lungs, etc.

I hate watching these scenes cause I have to remember that I once thought, pre-spitting, scenery chewing, flapping arms Buzz Cooper that Deas was sexy. It is a weird scene...the show could be over the top during this time but they didnt take advantage of a lot of the drama....Lisa and Whit should have been seriously at odds during this time with their sons on opposite sides..but Lisa just kind of stands there and says nothing until the end. I don't want to bring up the dreaded Santa Barbara comparison but I think the Dobsons were trying to make Lisa and Whit kind of like Lionel and Augusta (I think) two powerful people in love and married but contantly bickering and at odds, but it just didnt work. The Whit actor and his toup and dentures dont fit the character and what is up with Lisa's dowdy outfit and hairdo...(she looked terrible with red hair.) Wonder how much that set cost to make??? It was freaking huge with the snack counter and looked like a real courthouse.

Wow Carl, you are right, Deas is really good there....now THAT acting deserves accolades, not his Buzz Cooper scenery chewing. Also weird to be reminded that I used to find him sexy, and I can see why with that clip. Weird time for ATWT..they were so obsessed with "young,' characters yet the sets are so cheap and creaky looking and dimply lit as opposed to the ABC soaps at the time. Herrara was sexy as hell but even then James was a one dimensial villian. What the HELL did he do all day besides plot John Dixon's demise and try to keep Babs and Gunnar apart? Meg Ryan's Betsy was ackward and slightly retarded.

Maureen's last Christmas. I remember watching this episode and now in rewatching, the anvils were dropping all over the place..."I don't know how I got so helpless with out my wife!" Poor Ed, soon to be as much of victim of her death as Maureen was. And I didn't remember that Lillian wrote the infamous letter on Christmas Eve....JFP was a real sick customer wasn't she? Other thoughts, the show was already suffering from JFP fatique at this time, as Bev had left (Alex had not yet come back) and KS' Mindy was gone also. Liked seeing both Ehlers and Frankie D younger and working with better writing. Ehlers was not harsh and brittle here (and fuller faced) and Frankie D was not acting as a stuffy middle aged windbag. The writers too their credit understood his limitation and wrote Frank as a sweet, good natured normal guy instead of as SF's top cop, which Frankie D was not good at. Forgot that Derwin was actually hot, and HATED the stupid attic storyline. Made everyone just look dumb. (though loved Nadine's selfish "Cheer up its Christmas ," )

Thanks Khan, I miss Marland's ATWT!!!! I had to say that as "HONESTY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY RELATIONSHIP!"

I just have to laugh thinking if Doug M would have written this. Bob's ex lover would come to town and tell Bob that the time they were together were the happiest of his life and since his wife died he wanted to reignite the flame, but respecting Kim and Bob's relationship is importnant, so he wil just ponder the love letters he wrote Bob. John would find out but since Marland domesticated him he wouldnt tell, though we wouldd see weeks and weeks of cliffhangers where he would come into Kim's kitchen, "Kim I have something to tell you, you need to sit down," ..and then on Monday he would say, "Andy forgot his chemistry assignment and I need to walk it over to campus." Bob's ex lover would be named something like Reginald Wilson Bancroft and we would have scenes of Nancy welcoming him back to town, "You were like another son to me, you spent so much time sleeping over I almost forgot you werent," and Lisa, "Good ole' Reggie was always there for Bob when he and I had problems...he never seemed to like me much but he really did love my taste in shoes," with Bob having a pained expression (and a close up of course.) We would see weeks and weeks of Kim saying, "Now that the Susan affair is over, we both know HONESTY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A RELATIONSHIP,' and we would see other characters saying, "Bob and Kim are so strong as they know that HONESTY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A RELATIONSHIP," and just so we know the importance of this, we would have Lily say, "Someday I want a relationship like Bob and Kim, if they ever broke up I think I would take to my sick bed or go around whining constantly about how it effects me!" Lucinda would find the love letters (Marlands characters were always smart enough to write well but not smart enough to destroy incriminating notes) to Bob, and be tempted to publish (for weeks) but John would talk her out of it, but hem but it would be a temporary homophobic collegue of Bob's, or maybe Bob was advocating for an "HIV positive" clinic at Memorial and crazy angry homophobes would find them and publish them. The reveal would come at, where else, the Mona Lisa, were Reginald is being honored for saving Lily's life during yet another kidnapping (Just so we know he is not a villan and also gives Lucinda a reason to not let the cat out of the bag) as evil television reporter Cynthia McTavish would interupt, with cameras and say, "Dr. Hughes would you care to comment on your relationship with our hero, as you were lovers in high school? We have the letters here to prove it. Was that the reason you pushed for an HIV clinic in Memorial? How does your wife think about this and sir, is there anyone in Oakdale you havent slept with and/or married?" Imagine the pearl clutching Nancy would have done, imagine the pained but stoic face Kim would put on, look at the face Ellen would put on, looking like her hemoroid are hurting again, (she had her eye on Reginald since David died, at this point she thinks, "I might as well go on recurring,") Imagine Lisa climbing off the piano after singing a bad song and going after Cynthia "Why you witch, ole Lucy put you up to this didnt she," Imagine the close up of Lily and then everyone gathering around saying, "Now that Lily knows that even a strong relationship has secrets will she be able to love again? Maybe we shoudl throw another birthday party to cheer her up??"

I don't know if I could handle Bob being a closet case..plus he got a lot of ass (female) through the years. But I think a story like this could work if the writers and the audience could see that well....you know, "one blow job does not a faggot make.." kind of thing. It would make an interesting story if someone like a Bob character (though I think it would need to be more of a shades of grey character like Don Hughes or Ed Bauer) experimented with friend as kid..and then decided that hetorsexuality was their thing. That person they experiment comes back and blackmails or cause trouble etc. To beat a dead horse but on GL I thought they should have made Sandy and Jonathon lovers in boardingschool Sandy being gay and Jonathon letting him, uh service him for doing his papers. etc. Jonathon looked like he would screw anything!

You went out for drinks with GM???? BRAGGART!!!! God I hated that Betsy, I was so glad when the actress decided to quit and go to school I think. I remember all the tons of make up they would slosh on her, apparently trying to make her older?? Sexier???? Was that supposed to be Dee? She was kind of a chubbette wasnt she? Speaking of Betsy, up thread talking about Cricket. They brought Cricket on to be her nemises to fight over Eric, played by Peter Reckell. The Dobsons' paterned Cricket after Erica Kane and she was supposed to be a bitch. The triangle went no where as SD looked and acted like a sullen kid, PR had no charisma as Eric (weird that he became a big soap star) and Lisa Loring while looking the part, couldnt act her way out of a paper bag. I never knew why they kept her on so long.

Your not the only one..I saw in her that movie, I think its name is Bully??? She plays a murderous drunk, drugged out white trash slut, and I felt like yelling at the screen, "Michelle Bauer put your clothes back on and act like a lady!" LOL..I had to cover my eyes on the sex scenes, cause you know, its Michelle Bauer! I am in the minority in that I dont think she would have made a great grown up Michelle, just like the kid playing Bill Lewis wouldnt have made a great adult Bill. Acting and longevity yes, but I don't know, its a soap, and while I like the acting I like the eyecandy too, and Miner just doesnt have it. But once again, I was all for them recasting Scott Defreites as Andy Dixon on ATWT and when I mention that people wail "sacriledge!"

I think the fall of 85 seems SO bad in that it was such an abrupt change from what came before. Up until that point the show was an ensemble show, even with Lujack and Reva in the mix. The families were all featured pretty evenly, and they all had their differences and bounced off of each other (the working class but tight knit Reardon family, the traditional Bauer family plaqued but its own demons, the dysfunctional Spaulding family, and the rambuctious, rowdy, wild and rich Lewis family) and it worked. Fall of 85 came and the show just became so much darker. Not only were Hillary and Lujack killed within one year, but the focus left the more tradtional Bauer and Reardon families to showcase the Lewis (whom I liked, but you could only take a little bit of them ) vs. the Spaudlings, who went from shades of grey to downright evil, each and everyone of them. Eveyone else started acting more angry and mean (Rick throwing Mindy into a pool, Recast Ed going back to drinking and not taking responsibility for it, Phillip cut off all ties to his freinds and suddenly became a 35 year old version of Alan...etc) Nola was pushed into a closet and Vanessa went from hell on wheels to Billy's sad little mouse of a wife. To top it off Charita died and has been mentioned the Mike actor, who could have pulled it all together at that point, left. The show was inidated with exwhores (Roxie and Miss Sally) Kyle Sampson and his flaring nostrils and a goofy record company storlyine with its cast of all new and unpleasent characters. I never understood why TPTB didnt look at the summerof 85, when the show toppled GH from no 1, and tried to emulate what they did that summer instead of screwing it all up.

I never understood why they didn't bring Mike back during the whole Michelle Danny Santos thing. Ed was gone, and Mike working for the Justice Department would certainly have set up the "law and order," Bauers against the sleazy Santos thing. To work they just needed a real actress for Carmen. I think Santiago could have worked if perhaps Rauch wasnt there insisting she wear skin type leopard prints and act more like a powerful woman in a criminal world then a cougar on the prowl all the time.

Wow, this looks like a 100 years ago! Mel and Rick had no chemistry at all, why did they push it? RR was a horrible Alan but would have made a good Mike Bauer recast. Wow, remember when Harley was likeable and BE had some meat on her bones, and MOL was still kind of cute here. What happened to both of them, BE became a shrill stick woman and MOL bloated up and had a weird face going on.

I never thought I would find anyone more annoying then Princess Lily but I did find that in Princess Luke. The doctor guy needed a man to tangle with not that jittery little kid. Despite the show desperately trying to make him a hero I never found the actor could make Luke "likeable," at all (unlike Byrne, who did make Lily relatable at times.)

I remember watching this episode and thinking, "Yea, they finally blew her up!" only to be tortured by HR's horrlble Lily recast! The Hughes family scene is almost a parady of Marland....everyone sitting around drinking tea(including John of all people) out of those pristine cups (which I remember) Bob, in his bad sweater, Kim, decked out in her 80's garb, jacket and clunky jewelry and all and her line "Well, in Julie's favor she DID pay back 47,000 of the 50,000" after they mentioned that Lucinda brought her to town to break up Duke and that she was preggers with another guys baby and had an abortion....and classic Nancy Hughes...giving the town's bad girl a benefit of the doubt for being "vivacious and full of life," and , actually clutching her pearls when she mentioned that "Well I realize that she and Duke, had,uh, a RELATIONSHIP, (aka Nancy Hughes speak for screwing) and then giving a look of horror when finding out how bad Julie was, and then a pissed off look that she was actually working for Lisa (apparently Lisa had to run all her hires through Nancy...) As I said, it was almost a parody...but I still love it! Off topic...but I started watching the GL 4th episode and I forgot what a weak d*ck Ed could be. They really needed to bring Mike back to head up the family...I never really liked PS' Ed and never understood it until watching this episode.

LOL, oddly enough, he was one of the soap hunks I actually thought was hot, usually I am not so much when they bring someone on and I know they are supposed to be a "hunk." But Walters brought a kind of quiet intensity to it. Wanst a great actor but there was something about him that made him a bit more then the typical boring hunk. On the other hand that Mike Kasnoff never did anything for me. I always felt he was too organge and his hair was weird. Last year I turned on Days of Our Lives and he was on it, and wouldnt you know, he was even MORE orange and had exactley the same hair. Dude, let the 80s go!

I wouldn't blame the last 10 to 15 entirely on the souring of T & M. I would first attribute that to Marland, who never wrote comedy well, even light comedy, which was T & M's thing, and I would blame the casting of both Holmes and Dolan, neither one who were good at comedy or warmth. I liked Deas as Tom, actually thought he was sexy (which is weird to me as all I can think of is Deas as total turn off Buzz Cooper) and the first Margo, but when I watched their scenes now they were totally over the top and their comedy was a bit loud (as they were) and forced. To top it off they were part of the era that obscured the Hughes family so they never felt connected to them (did Deas ever have scene with Hastings or Fulton or Wagner???) I thought both HBS and Marx brought T & M down to earth but still kept the fun and comedy, and of course Marland intergrated them into the Hughes family (could never have seen the first Margo having scenes in Kim's kitchen or calling Wagner "Gram,") I guess Deas and Colin just seem so harsh but that was the era of ATWT. Holmes and Dolan with Marland writing them, lost all the humor and fun. I know I am alone but I hated the rape and HIV storyline ..wrong character to give it to, totally took the fun out Margo forever (as it would in real life) I was also at the point of wanting to never have to see another woman on a soap raped..even if it was done as realistically as they did it. To add to the downer storylines, Holmes and Dolan both have a propensity to be dour and sour (not to mention they lost al the sexual chemistry the other incarnations had.) But yes, Marx was the sexiest best Tom, that chest, that voice that height!! They should have done everything they could to keep him in place.

That had to be during the summer of 79 or 80? where Barbara is about to marry James and his brother's inlaws are tyring to prevent it from happening. One of them chases Babs through the desterted museum (doubling for a museum that James' money had started in Oakdale) Hope that helps.

Good for Raines, hated his take on Alan, but who knows...it could have worked but by the time he came the show had started whittling the characters down to basic elements and they became cartoons (i.e. Roger =evil, Alex=rich shrew, etc.)