Mitch

LOL..I never knew who the freak "Cabot," was but all I knew is that her Rossane was constantly talking about him! But that's how connected I was to ATWT after the Spa storyline, etc. Just checked in to see the old gang once in a while.

I hated when the PG shows cut down their openings. It figured the only long one we would get would be Wheeler's wretched "Love will always change the world," or whatever that craptastic song was. I actually loved the toliet flushing one, always thought it sounded so "regal," until someone here or elsewhere called it by that name, and now it cracks me up!

Didn't watch the whole thing, but I can see how the format could have worked if they had kept the original sets and filmed outside in the new format. Just from the stills of Olivia in the RevaBend/HollyBend/FarmHouse set compared to the toast in what I think is supposed to be the Spaulding Mansion. I did like that when people went to a park it was a real park, when they went to a cemetary it was real, etc. I just didn' t like that the whole show took place in a park, grave yard, alley, somebody's junked up back yard.

Jeff Hamlin was smoking HOT...who could anyone say he was not a hunk??? Though he was so nice the only drama would have been Emily screwing up again....unless they revealed Jeff was bisexual but that was probably just my fantasy. Hated Larry though.

Marj was a harpy around everyone! It was too bad as I love her scene with FauxAnnie in the Spaulding Attic, "You got quite a bark on you, don't ya honey...well I have faced worse then the likes of you, and always won!" as Annie gets in her face and Marj doesnt blink and just laughs her off. They always seemed to write MarjAlex between a huffing and puffing pain in the ass to being too weak. If they had stuck to street tough Alex like the attic scene, she would have rocked it. BevAlex is of couse my fave, but I LOVED Joan Alex...she had chemistry with everyone and had everything, she was a mean opponent but had a warmth about her, with scenes with Harley (hated, what Weston, Kreizman and Wheeler did to that relationship) Phillip, and even Alan. Embarrased to say this but when confronted with a problem I would love to be like JoanAlex, cool, calm, with a twinkle in my eye, a smart ass comment on my lips and a card up my sleeve! I don't think NSA was terrible as Chele, she was just too old and matronly for the part at that time. There were parts of the amnesia story I liked, confusion and anger but then it became a terrible rip off of the AW Rachel amnesia storyline (which was hilarious...when shown her closet Amnesia Rachel says, "WHO would wear those dowdy things..they can't be mine!!!" If they simply had Michelle forget like, five years of her life, going back to before Manny..could be good. She could have been horrified at the person she became. all because of "Twu LURRVE" as Danny tries to win her over again. And thank you, I could have gone forever without seeing Chele dancing in that t-shirt in that clip! LOL.

Damn the Bauer living room and the Spaulding dining room looked great! Did they always look that good or is Peapack making everything look better? Loved the show during the Rauch/Taggert preWestonConboy era. Loved JoanAlex (and her fake concern for Olivia...good to know RR was still a terrible actor and always looked like he had gas when he was being mean) and hmmmm Phillip and Olivia, hot! Actually liked Matt Bomer in the clip, cute and kind of sexy (never liked him at the time) and of course, loved tough Marina (shades of Nola..saying the wrong thing at the wrong time) funny she would soon become simpering annoying Bruno Marina. Was that MADD we see in the closing (and Harley 's ugly ass coat she wore for years!)

Thanks, I love the behind the scenes stuff! That was an interesting time as the show evolved from the Dobson's era to the Marland era, interesting bridge time.

Would love to hear from her what initiated the show to change direction from the Bunim/Dobson's years, to bringing back the Hughes family as the core family (the Dobson's obscured the Hughes in favor of the Stewarts.) I think at that time Frons was head of CBS daytime...did he have objections to having a middle aged couple (Bob and Kim) take center stage and also object to the return of Chris and Nancy?

I remember the old Datalounge thread about soaps that went on and on and on..which alleged that he and the Paul actor and some network (I think ABC) exec had a three way! Personally I would want Eddie "man." all to myself.. but...

I loved that story, I don't think it changed history that much, as by that time the Spauldings were supposed to have lived in SF forever etc. Plus it starred Mr. Tony Reardon! Still scratching my head why they let him go and stopped writing for the Reardons, and then tried to recreate that with the Coopers and Frankie D, a cheap Tony Reardon rip off. No way could he carry a "Hi YAAAH" with such power!!

That Chris was SO bad!!! And yes, they have New York accents in Oakdale, just like they had them in Springfield with Drew Jacobs...though of course she was not born in SF, but in Califorinia!! "So Michele, I jus' godda know who my mudder is!!!" And I am embarrassed to say it, but I always thought Eddie was kind of hot!

I would really be interested in seeing how ATWT dropped so suddenly. It was the number 1 show in 77 and dropped to 7th place in 79, correct?

LOVED Sonni/Solita...lol..Sonni smacking Reva with those pictures..wonder if that was a choice on Forbes part as Zimmer looked kind of surprised. Also, funny that Reva and her goofy brother had the same exact hair do! I never liked that guy.

I liked the "idea," behind Matt and Beth. I never liked Mattessa and think that Van would be bored to death with her young hunk after the sex thing wore off. I do like that at that time they had Van go back to Spaulding and get back her "Ummpph," I liked that they had her go up against Vicki, and Alan, and can see why they would use her in that capacity instead of Alex (once again, love Marj, hated Marj's Alex.) MK makes a much better icy bitch then a loving matriarch sighing away in her rose garden. I think that after they killed Mo off the show was desperatley tyring to find a woman in that age range to fill that role and since MG wasnt the type they tried to shoehorn MK into it. Beth needed to be redeemed after they make her the spoiler in the Phillip Harley and Matt was the type of laid back hot guy she needed. However, they continued on with the selfish bitchy Beth and had it all be about age, and calling Vanessa old and have her question her sexuality and age..which Van would never have done, she would just smash Beth under her heel!(of course, I would never have given Van the miracle baby..I would love for one soap opera woman to say, "You know, I had enough kids, I am done now, and by the way, forget about the marriage thing, I did it and am tired of it.") The Mob was another good "idea," SF had become awfully upper middle class with the Reardons all assimilated or gone, and the Coopers the same, and with Buzzard winning the lottery . The show needed an "outsider," family to come in and stir things up and having a hispanic family was a good idea. Also having a less then sweet matriach was a good idea, but Carmen was a cartoon, where she should have been a morally ambivalent woman who, while wanting to ascend into SF society, also resented the people who were already there. Simply having some shady ties to organized crime or something less then legit would have been fine, maybe her husband was a mobster who was killed, and she was trying to legitimize the family. Having her hate Chelle but using the Bauer name and ties to the rest of the families would have been more interesting then what we got.

Who is this Chuck guy??? LOL..I have to say it, but Rauch's and E & B's GL was entertaining, if more stupid and boneheaded then it was under Curlee. I would have to say I would watch it every night up until the mob and San Crud took over and I couldnt stand it. I wonder why the change in direction. Before, even if you didnt like the stories or the way people acted it involved the core families and legacy characters, and then that stupid island came and Rassie and Manny...

The show (i.e. Marland) was really good at subtley showing that even nice people can have bigoted and homophobic thoughts, (even if they are the most polite and homophobic people ever.) Thought it was interesting when they showed that even open minded Lisa, who screwed her way through Oakdale was bigoted against black people. Interesting that it was part of the mix of the Duncan and Jessica story (which I thought was a snooze, but I never though Duncan fit in Oakdale..) and not this HUGE story. Contrast that with the dreaded Nuke story where the kid's dad was such a raging homophobe, didnt he try to kill Luke??? If they told the story now Lisa would have held Jessica hostage or something. Also watching these clips its amazing how textured the show was. People have little conversations like real (once again though amazingly waspy and polite) people. The shows lost all that with just OTT drama, drama, drama.

Liked Crazy Carrie, screwing the delivery boy, but hated "normal," Carrie and her health food stuff she was talking about, This was one of Marland's first times where he took a sexual viable conflicted guy (Ross) and had him totally wuss out for a less then attractive chick. Sorry, the Carrie actress worked and works as a villainous Tracy, but not as some sex pot a good looking guy like Ross would fall totally for. I remember one horrible scene where she convinces Ross to take up "jogging," and they both have matching track suits!!!! I hate to admit that I would have hated to see Carrie in therapy to merge her personalities..Marland's therapy scenes were tedious. The only good to come out of it is if she came out of it conflicted and kind of bad...dumped Ross and became a semi bad person.

I have to say I almost didnt watch that watching Julie and Andy making out...I hated those two. Yea, the Ellen actress plays it straight but Fulton does that little twist where she is having fun with a less then worthy partner. Yea, I remember reading a article about the time that Fulton left ATWT as she felt she was just fading into the background (which I have to say wasnt true, they built a whole family for her) so she dyed her hair red as she was bored. She looked terrible with it. Then there was a story where she was having a party to announce if she was leaving the show or not, and they had her "stylist," a "Ms. Frankie," who, as my father would say, "Looked like an old whore!" So we can see some of her uh, less the wise choices. Would have been interesting if, during the Dobson's time, if Lisa took one of Ellen's girls under her wing, and she and Ellen could have a good old fashioned throw down.

This is one of those episodes where you can see, as I think you pointed out Carl, Marland is showing James quick descent...disguised as an old man (and actually a good disquise) and wanting to use Lucinda's "stables," as his home base. I also love that they have Lucinda questioning the authenticity of the letter, which would never happen after Marland leaves and people loose their brains. Fulton looks horrible with that red hair never understood why they didnt make her go back to blonde. Love how Marland uses a realistic gossip session between Babs and Lisa to give a little expostion about Lucinda and John and I love the little touches of continuing Lisa and Ellen bickering "Why I just can't imagine why David never comes up here to visit you, you have to go all the way down all the time," and "Oh, I will show you some nice things, and they are on SALE!" I don't know if its the writing or Fulton's ease with the character and a bitchy twist on words but it adds a nice texture then drama, drama, drama...all the time, you get the feeling these people have actually know each other for decades.

\ Thank you for the Tony Reardon beefcake (though I never remember him being so skinny??? He must have filled out in a few years) I would have dropped those damn grocery bags. Never understood why they let the actor get away only to replace him with the vastly inferior Frank Cooper and Frankie D (Tony would never high light or feather his hair.) There is some of that creaky Marland dialogue and I forgot how shitty the sets were at that time. The boardinghouse living room looked so generic..however, better then Peapack, would much rather have seen sets like that as opposed to the closets they were filming in. I remember this well, Diane Ballard is about to get hers...loved that bitch and they should never have killed her off. I remember endless shots of the suitcase in her closet!

Wow, Phillips was going to burn somebody to death on her honeymoon??? Can you imagine the screams from fans if that happened today? They would call it too dark....though it would be funny if it was one half of some annoying super couple who marry five times over and over again. Would have loved to have seen Harley of Gus go up in flames on their honeymoon to see the Gusher go freaking nuts!!!

Its odd too because with some gay actors, you just can't buy them being these sexual beasts (at least with women) that the script calls for...but even though Alan was supposed to be a bit as you say efette, (or maybe that worked in this case) you could see why these hot babes like Rita and Reva would go for him, and you could believe that he would be a wild man in the sack with them. So its weird a straight guy like RR never could get that across the screen, we just took it for granted that he was powerful in business and with women, because CB made it so. However, I will say RR was kind of hot on the farm with Reva in the Amish stupidity. I think he was just miscast and could have been better as a more earthy person, like say a Mike Bauer, or if they cast him as Buzz or better yet, the Reardon patriach who was not really dead (though I couldnt see RR with Bea Reardon!!!!)

Thanks, those were the years, that I stopped watching as it got so dark, depressing and boring...(I think I had it with Marland's GL with the Angle Lange storyline and Margo's rape...yes, well written and well acted blah,blah, blah but not what I wanted to see on my lunch time. Especially since Angel was such a simpering fool and then they paired her with Seth Snyder...(oh my god, I am going into a coma thinking about it.) Turned over to Curlee's GL at that time and really (unfortunatley as things turned out) never went back to ATWT but stuck with GL.

Nola/Buzz terrible story, when it could have been a funny story about these oddball characters who everyone loves despite their eccentric behavior, getting together. A nice comedic break from the sturm and drang. They had a lot in common, blue color up bringing, questionable moral choices when they were young. Always thought that they should have brought Nola in to the action earlier, when Jenna was fighting with that bad guy and they go to New York to scam him. Nola could have gone with Buzz to help the scam, and during the course of it all she could have not only found her zest and her adventurous side again (not to mention her talent for deception) but she could have fallen in love with Buzz. That would have started a triangle that made sense (well nothing about Buzz and Jenna made sense...) But having a lovesick Nola stalk Buzz, come on!!!! I wasnt watching Kirk and Sam...never understood who the Walsh silbings were in relation to the character that the India actress played in relation to who Sam was...(Lucinda's sister right???) Marland's ATWT was getting a little too dense at that time with all of these extra characters coming to town. The show needed the same trimming down to the core families that he did when he got there.

Always would have loved to have seen what Curlee could have done with ATWT. I always loved her explanation of how soaps are, and how you can only go so far (when she admitted killing Maureen was too much and essentially turned the audience against GL) and her inclusion of Nancy Hughes and her kitchen in that. I think she would have got it.